Module 13: Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

• Meyer, L. A. (2002). Bloody Jack: Being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy. San Diego: Harcourt.

Summary

Mary Faber is a child during the early 19th century.  Orphaned early on, she is left to navigate the London streets on her own.  Eventually, she seizes an opportunity to work aboard a British Naval ship, but in order to do so, she must disguise herself as a boy.  The potential for discovery adds great tension as the newly christened Jacky must carry her weight as a new ship "boy."  Her new role offers her a stability she has never known, and the challenges of living on the seas gives her a chance to become something she never could on the streets.  Will the growth be enough, though, for a girl to survive living in a man's world?

Impressions and Opinions of the Books

The story of Bloody Jack reminded me, at times, of Avi's True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle as well as Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking.  However, the fact that Jacky is a girl disguised as a boy adds a layer of complexity to the story line that really highlights and brings to the surface the differences in the way males and females were treated at this point in history.  

Meyer confronts some pretty ugly truths of this period in time, refusing to shy away from the ugliness of street orphans and the despair that came from a city plighted by death.  She also has a way of immersing the reader into another time and place by using language and colloquialisms common to the day.  The story is much darker and the subject matter more intense than I initially thought it would be, and there are all the pieces of an adventure tale, from war and pirates to murder and even attempted rape.  The epic journey is intended for a mature audience, for sure, but the up close view into history and the unique perspective provided make it a worthwhile read.

Full-Text Review

Posing as a lad in the late 1790s, a spunky orphan girl secures a job as a ship’s boy in the British Navy, a position that becomes compromised by her evolving maturity and love for a fellow crewmember. Meyer, a debut novelist, has penned a rousing old-time girl’s adventure story, with an outsized heroine who is equal parts gutsy and vulnerable, then sets her loose on a pirate-hunting vessel in the high seas. The novel is full of action and derring-do, but the real suspense is generated by maintaining what the heroine calls “The Deception,” her disguise as a boy. Initially, it’s fairly easy because Jacky, as the heroine decides to call herself, is as flat-chested, hairless, and high-voiced as the rest of the boys. She simulates using the ship’s head, imitating the boys’ “shake-and-wiggle action” and even creates a faux penis out of cloth under her drawers, so that she’s as “well rigged out” as the rest of the lads. Clever and courageous, Jacky deals with both the ship’s bully and pedophile, fights pirates valiantly, and manages to save the day for her shipmates, enabling them to secure the buccaneers’ booty. Jacky is such a marvelous creation that the other characters feel shadowy in comparison, and the least engaging parts of the novel involve her secret romance with a fellow ship’s boy. Capped by a fitting but bittersweet ending, the first-person narrative shines, and a wealth of historical research is seamlessly knitted into the material. A first-rate read. (Fiction. 12+)

Kirkus (2002). [Review of the book Bloody Jack:being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky"
      Faber, ship's boy]. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/la-meyer/bloody-jack/

Library Uses

Bloody Jack was not at all the story I expected it to be, and I think it would be interesting to bring home the "you can't judge a book by its cover" adage using this book.  A simple activity for high school students would be to show students just the front cover and have them predict a summary of the book without any other information, writing what they think they would read on the back cover. Similar to Balderdash, then the different student created summaries could be read, along with the real summary, and students would have to vote for the one they think is correct.  It would also be a roundabout way of doing a book trailer; without ever reading the book to them, students would be enticed to pick it up on their own.