Pirates! by Celia Rees

The full title is Pirates! The true and remarkable adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington, Female Pirates.

“I stood with Minerva as our first fight came, pistols primed and slung about me, my cutlass honed and as sharp as a razor, my axe hanging heavy from my belt. I could not keep my legs from shaking…” Nancy Kington grew up in Bristol, England, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, owner of a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Life as she knows it completely changes when he dies.

She is shipped to the Caribbean to the plantation she has inherited. Here she witnesses cruelty and the inhumanity of slavery. Her father kept slaves taken from Africa and had been a slave trader. And she has been promised in marriage according to her father’s will to Bartholome, a black-hearted slave master. She is kept powerless to do anything about the horror she sees around her or to escape her fate.

Minerva Sharpe is a house slave at Fountainhead Plantation. Her lonely new mistress is kind to her and befriends her. Their bond and their fates are more closely tied than either of them know. Nancy’s arrival starts a series of events that take Minerva away from the only life she has ever known and into a fight for her life and freedom. For when one must murder the plantation overseer who attacks the other, the two girls must flee.

There’s nothing for it but to “go on the account,” that is, to join a crew of pirates and ship out. They do not know that they will “instill fear in the ordinary crew and passengers [of ships they attacked, that they will], board with reckless boldness, and if the prize offered resistance, it was kill or be killed." They do not know that Bartholme will follow them across the globe for vengeance.

“My knuckles were white from gripping the rail, but Minerva had a stillness about her, her features as calm and expressionless as if they had been carved from ironwood…It was not resignation, more a refusal to show any reaction to whatever fate was about to enfold her. I was green and sick with nervousness. She put her hand on mine to steady me, whispering through the cannon's roar. 'We will watch out for each other. We will not be afraid.'We leapt the gap between the ships together, ready to fight and die for each other.”

For info about pirates and more about this and other Celia Rees books, go to http://www.celiarees.co.uk/

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

So what does happen after you die? In this book, people and their pets go to Elsewhere, which seems a lot like Earth: You live in a city, drive cars, go to work, visit with friends. But from the day you arrive in Elsewhere, you start aging backwards until you are a baby again and sent back to Earth. In the meantime you meet others who have died, whether stranger, relative, or friend from the past. You'll meet Lizzie, who died at the age of fifteen in a car accident. At first she cannot imagine that she is dead and not dreaming. She meets her grandma who she never met in life. She finds she can speak canine, and so is helpful to newly arrived pets. You'll follow her on her journey from disbelief, to adjustment, to fulfillment, to love, and back to starting life over again.

Skellig by David Almond

This book was donated to our LMC in memory of our dear student, Marianna Goodwin, who died this past summer. It was one of her favorite books. I hadn't read it before, but I do like David Almond's other books, and I'm so glad I did. In the story is a family whose baby is in intensive care, needing heart surgery. Michael, the baby's brother, and Mina, his friend from next door, are your age. They discover and help an extraordinary winged being who may be bringing the love and strength the baby sister needs to survive. I kept thinking about Marianna, so delicate, so full of life. For those of you who loved her or just knew her, this book might have special meaning for you.

Here's the spot to find out about Smith LMC's newest books

I've been commenting on books featured in CHHS's Media Center Book Blog, but maybe it's time to focus on books @ your LMC, especially new books coming into our collection. So I'll be telling you about my latest favorite books. I have a lot of new favorites. ( - ; Please comment if you've also read any of the titles or want to introduce new ones (and maybe persuade me to order them for the LMC). I'll start with a couple I just read over the weekend.