Product Description

When young Jim Davis stumbles upon a smuggling ring, his life takes a terrifying new turn. He is forced into joining a fierce band of pirates, led by Marah, a frightening and sea-scarred buccaneer. Under Marah's watchful eye, Jim has many hair-raising adventures and close escapes, while learning all about the perils of the sea and living the life of an outlaw. Originally published in 1923, this action-packed adventure has thrilled generations of children in the past. Now British award-winning writer Michael Morpurgo, explains why this forgotten classic deserves to be brought back in print and has all the right ingredients for today's kids.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1762880 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Best known perhaps for his poem "Sea-Fever" ("I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,/ And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by"), Masefield (1878-1967) produced this rattling yarn in 1911. The tale of a 12-year-old boy who falls in with smugglers could trace its lineage back to the swashbuckling stories of Robert Louis Stevenson and may find its modern-day offspring in such works as Iain Lawrence's High Seas trilogy. Jim, an orphan, is sent to live with relatives along the Devon coast. There he accidentally witnesses the deeds of a troop of night-riders, or smugglers, and becomes caught up in their shadowy, dangerous world of excise men, sea caves and illicit cargo. Forced to sign on for a voyage ("You've got to become one of us, so as if you give us away you'll be in the same boat," explains Marah Gorsuch, a mesmerizing, larger-than-life night-rider who might be friend or foe), Jim faces hurdle after hurdle. From a skirmish with a British frigate to a nightmarish chase on horseback to run-ins with soldiers and gypsies, the plot stays rip-roaring, and the atmospheric prose ("the strange moan of the snow-wind") supplies a polished, literary veneer. Ages 9-12.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Originally published in 1911, this is an old-fashioned adventure story set in England in the early nineteenth century. On a snowy night, 12-year-old Jim Davis stumbles across a group of nightriders who are delivering contraband goods to the interior of the country. He meets one of the smugglers, enters the bandits' hidden cave, and is captured and forced to join two of their expeditions. Furious battles ensue, and Jim becomes a fugitive until finally returning home. Masefield was England's poet laureate, and his prose has a poet's grace and attention to detail. The language, however, doesn't get in the way of the rip-roaring plot, which taps into the rich vein of classic sea stories, such as Treasure Island. A glossary in the back explains the many obscure nautical terms. Todd Morning
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Traditional English high adventure literature
If you like Robert Louis Stevenson, you will thoroughly enjoy Masefield's Jim Davis. I first read this at age 14 (with some vocab help from dear old dad) and it remains one of the best books I have read in a long while. Being a history major and an english minor I found the prose of this book delightful and the historical significance astounding. If you are an adult who has read and re-read Stevenson too much and want the same genre but a different author/plot Jim Davis is the novel for you. If you have a child whom you wish to turn onto fine literature Jim Davis will grab your child's imagination and illustrate a grand adventure of pirates, smugglers, soldiers and gypsies for it. Any child (old or young) can relate to the stories narrator, this is a jewel of English literature. Another great Stevenson alternate is J. Meade Falkner's Moonfleet, it is a bit of an easier read than Jim Davis, but contains just as much adventure.

A Boy's Adventures Along the Devon Coast
This story is set in early 19th century Devon, during the Napoleonic Wars. The narrator is a boy in his early teens, who by chance and high spirits falls in with a gang of smugglers bringing contraband by sea from France to England. It's a fast-moving story, in the tradition of R. L. Stevenson, and a good look at the history of the period along England's south coast too.

This is a very good book.
It is appropriate for anyone who loves action and adventure