Product Description

"False, they were all of them false, the stories; as false as the stories of fairies dancing in moonlight glades on Midsummer Night."

But they served a purpose. In a distant time and far-off kingdom, life is hard. People don't have enough to eat, and winter is upon them. There's little that offers hope, and many turn to the legends of Jackaroo -- the masked outlaw hero who rides at night giving aid to the helpless and coin to the destitute -- for solace. But Gwyn, the Innkeeper's daughter -- sensitive, industrious, and independent -- is too practical to believe such tales.

But when a snowstorm forces her and a young Lordling to seek refuge in an abandoned house, Gwyn wonders if perhaps she has been too cynical. Hidden away in an old forgotten cupboard, Gwyn discovers a package -- a cloak, a mask, a sword....Jackaroo? Could the stories be true?

It takes a shock and a devastating betrayal for Gwyn to begin to understand what -- and who -- Jackaroo really is. And she comes to know what part she will play in discovering the truth, such as it may be, behind the legends.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134615 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 368 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780689864353
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Previously available in a Fawcett edition, this sweeping historical adventure/romance is the first volume of the Kingdom cycle, which also includes On Fortune's Wheel and The Wings of a Falcon. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up An intense and elegantly written historical adventure-romance set in "a distant time and far-off place." Gwyn, the high-spirited daughter of the innkeeper, finds a disguise she believes to be that of the legendary Jackaroo, a figure whose actions resemble those of Robin Hood. Gwyn decides to use Jackaroo's disguise to help those less fortunate than she. But readers soon learn that there are several other individuals who masquerade as Jackaroo, each for his own selfish or unselfish reasons. Jackaroo will stimulate the imagination and make readers marvel at Voigt's creative genius. She presents a carefully designed, mystery-filled plot which once again illustrates her abilities as a master storyteller. Characters are somewhat reluctant to reveal themselvesbut this is a most appropriate style for a tale of dangerous and uncertain times. Jackaroo will cause readers to pause and consider the process of legend making and the changes that take place in the retellings of legendary deeds. Karen P. Smith, Yonkers Board of Education, N.Y.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap
"Voigt is extraordinary in her subtle development of every single character and in her ability to immerse her readers in a time many centuries back."
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
There is much want in the kingdom and the tales of Jackaroo, the masked outlaw who helps the poor in times of trouble, is on everyone's lips. Gwyn, the innkeeper's spunky daughter, pays little attention to the tales. But when she is stranded during a snowstorm in a cabin with the lordling Gaderian, and finds a strange garment that resembles the costume Jackaroo is said to wear, she begins to wonder....

Customer Reviews

Don't despair! It gets better!
If you can make it through the first half of this book, you'll love it. I read about five chapters when I first bought it, get bored, and threw it under the bed to age for a couple of years. When I finally did finish it, it became my second favorite book. Adventure, action, and emotional twists happen in this book, but you have to wade through a deceptively bland beginning to get to it. Read it twice and I promise you'll find stuff in it that fascinates you, even though you swear it wasn't there before.

But, to the book itself - Voight has the most masterful control over her characters of any author I know. Gwen is practical, strong, sharp, and, as someone else says down here, "worth emulating." She does what we all dream of doing - become a hero: Jackaroo, who is something like our Robin Hood, only distinct in his own right. Only she finds out being a hero isn't as easy as she suspected. What I found interesting was the power of a legend, and how people could manipulate it to their purposes, but could never really control it.

This book is a thinking book. The danger it presents is mainly not through action but through concepts. No matter what you're expecting, this book will probably deliever something different, unless you've read Voight before. But give it a chance - when I finally, did, I fell in love with it.

just as good the second time around
I had read Jackaroo several years ago--probably 12 or 13 years now--and only remembered the basic story when I read it again with my son. He's a 10-year-old boy, and in the first few chapters, he would ask, "When is it going to get good?"--for a boy his age, it was a rather slow start, but I enjoyed the descriptions, the setting up of the story. But once Gwyn was trapped in Old Megg's house with the lordling, he was hooked and many nights he begged for another chapter. And he didn't even mind that it had a mushy, romantic ending, which is saying a lot.
I loved the characters of Gwyn and Burl--I'm not quite sure what book one of the other reviewers was reading who said the characters were one-dimensional. And what's so bad about a nameless kingdom? It's not as finely drawn as Tolkien's Middle Earth, that's true--but then I wasn't reading it as a fantasy reader. I just like a good story with good characters, and Jackaroo certainly delivers that.
I do agree that both Tad and Gaderian were not much like 10-year-old boys that we see in 20th/21st century America, but that is not where they were living. They were living in a time and place where Gwyn was almost considered an old maid at age 16!
We are going to read On Fortune's Wheel next (the next Kingdom book) but will probably skip Elske because it's too girly. I've read On Fortune's Wheel before, and I'm looking forward to re-reading it as well.

Masks, stories, and freedom: a compelling blend
In every time, in every place where the people are oppressed by a ruling class, there is a hero of the poor, an outlaw who rides outside the law and is yet its greatest champion. In old England it was Robin Hood. In Spaniard-ruled California it was Zorro. And here, in this unnamed kingdom ruled by a distant King and greedy Lords, it is Jackaroo. Jackaroo is the masked outlaw who rights wrongs, who saves true love, who comes to help the people in their worst times of need. Jackaroo is the name in every story, the hero of every tale. And Jackaroo, as Gwyn, the skeptical Innkeeper's Daughter, finds out, is not what he seems to be.

Nor is anybody, as Gwyn discovers. Not the imperious Lord who winters at the Inn, not the silent servant Burl, not Gwyn's missing uncle Win...and not Gwyn herself. Beneath Jackaroo's mask, she is able to do the things that a law-abiding Kingdom girl would never be allowed--but which Gwyn has always dreamt of: being the savior of her people, actively fighting the Lords' injustice as opposed to passively accepting it, finally free of stifling tradition for the first time in sixteen years. But there is a price paid for the wearing of the mask: the heavy responsibility that comes with being a hero, and the sacrifice of herself that Gwyn must make to become Jackaroo.

Jackaroo and the Kingdom are new but familiar, the feudal society vividly depicted and the characters sharply drawn and believable. Gwyn is strong-willed and far too intelligent for her position, Burl is steadfast and fully as intelligent beneath his slow smile, and Jackaroo--no matter which face he appears in--is the hero of every folktale. Voight's writing is compelling, making "Jackaroo" a page-turner to be read...and re-read...and read yet again.

It's that good.