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84th out of 318 books
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261 voters
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add to my books
Black Duck
It is spring 1929, and Prohibition is in full swing. So when Ruben and Jeddy find a dead body washed up on the shore of their small coastal Rhode Island town, they are sure it has something to do with smuggling liquor. Soon the boys, along with Jeddy's strongwilled sister, Marina, are drawn in, suspected by rival bootlegging gangs of taking something crucial off the dead m
...moreHardcover, 252 pages
Published
May 18th 2006
by Philomel Books
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Barky
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When Ruben and his best friend Jeddy find a dead body on the beach in 1929, their lives change forever. A weird reaction from the local law enforcement causes Ruben to give the body some thought and he eventually discovers that the dead man was an infamous rum runner. During this time of Prohibition, rum runners bought booze from Canada or the West Indies and smuggled it into the country. Because the ships had to anchor in international waters, rum runners would load up small boats with the liqu...more
Andy
rated it
Recommends it for:
boys, Tom Sawyer wannabees,
Recommended to Andy by:
Texas Lone Star list
David wants to become a journalist, not part of his family's landscaping business. All he needs is one great story to prove that he has what it takes to be a good writer, and maybe then he'll be hired as a news reporter.
He finds an old man who was alive during the days of the Prohibition. From this point, the novel becomes the old man's story, and David's story becomes a thinly applied series of intermissions.
This is a great novel. I really enjoyed it. A neat historical f...more
He finds an old man who was alive during the days of the Prohibition. From this point, the novel becomes the old man's story, and David's story becomes a thinly applied series of intermissions.
This is a great novel. I really enjoyed it. A neat historical f...more
***kids book This historical fiction novel was a great read. It was presented as a story an old man was telling a young man in present day. It presented a mystery of sorts, while imparting the history of the U.S. during prohibition. It challenged the reader to think about how people were pulled in to participate in "rum running" even though they were against it and the mob that ran things--including the main characters dad, his best friend and the best friends dad--- the sheriff. ...more
OMG this book is great i would definelty recommend this book
to a friend.
to a friend.
The Black Duck was pretty good. It's about a freshman student named David Peterson who wants to become a proffesional reporter/newspaper writer. He finds an old newspaper clipping about the Black Duck, a rum-running ship and decides to research it. He discovers that a man named Ruben Hart, which lived not to far from David, was in the rum-running business before. Ruben tells David the story about how he and his friend Jeddy Mckenzie find a dead body along the beach. The man's dead body had a nic...more
This story starts out as the tale of a David, a boy who wants to be a reporter but can’t become one unless he gets a good story. So he sets off to find Ruben Hart to learn what he can about the days of the rumrunners and the fate of the Black Duck. David doesn’t get the story he wants immediately, but Ruben eventually tells David his tale. It is 1929; the height of Prohibition, and best friends Ruben and Jeddy find a body washed up on the shores of their Rhode Island village. The body mysterio...more
by Janet Taylor Lisle
Opening line: “A rumrunner had lived in town, one of the notorious outlaws who smuggled liquor during the days of Prohibition, that was the rumor.”
David wants to be come a reporter and so he decides to look into the story. Over time he forms a connection with Ruben Hart, who tells him what happened to the Black Duck, a famous rumrunning boat, all those years ago.
This was a book that I probably should have liked a bit more than I did. It takes an...more
Opening line: “A rumrunner had lived in town, one of the notorious outlaws who smuggled liquor during the days of Prohibition, that was the rumor.”
David wants to be come a reporter and so he decides to look into the story. Over time he forms a connection with Ruben Hart, who tells him what happened to the Black Duck, a famous rumrunning boat, all those years ago.
This was a book that I probably should have liked a bit more than I did. It takes an...more
The book Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle is a really good and exciting book. The book takes place back in the 1920's during prohibition in New England. The book talks about a boy named David almost a freshman in highschool wanting to be reporter when he grows up. David really wants to find an amazing story to write about, but nothing usually happens in his town Newport. One day a girl named Jeddy and her friend Ruben Hart go walking on the beech and find a dead body. David found out and tr...more
Picked up this book after I was utterly bored with the beginning of a different one I had started. Glad I did so - Black Duck is one of the best books I've read this summer.
In this book, Black Duck was a rum-running vessel during Prohibition-era Rhode Island. I liked the book's concept - it started with a newspaper article telling you that the Black Duck's crew were found by the Coast Guard one night, and three of the four crew members died. The plot is then told in two ways - third-pe...more
In this book, Black Duck was a rum-running vessel during Prohibition-era Rhode Island. I liked the book's concept - it started with a newspaper article telling you that the Black Duck's crew were found by the Coast Guard one night, and three of the four crew members died. The plot is then told in two ways - third-pe...more
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David is beginning his freshman year of high school and hopes to become a journalist. While searching for a good story, he comes across a newspaper article about the rum-running business that went on in his Rhode Island town some 70 years ago. He recognizes the name of one of the townspeople involved with the Black Duck and decides to interview him. Ruben Hart, pretty apprehensive about telling young David his story, has a change of heart and decides that he should tell David what really happ...more
I really enjoyed this book. I had to read it for my Materials for Young Adults library science class. It's a historical novel about the Prohibition era and a rum-running boat called the Black Duck that the Coast Guard is constantly chasing after. Ruben Hart, a 14 year-old, and his best friend, Jeddy, are walking down the beach when they discover a dead body floating in a tide pool. Immediately, they check for identification before trying to contact Jeddy's father, the police chief, and Ruben wal...more
Great storyline – teenagers caught at the fringes of liquor smuggling operations during US Prohibition. The plot is based upon a real-life rum running speedboat that was shot up, with 3 people killed, in 1930.
For the most part, the action moves well. And there’s a thorough consideration of all the gray areas that exist among the small-time privateers, officials on the take, hard-pressed local families, and mafia-style gangsters.
But this also creates a problem - it’s har...more
For the most part, the action moves well. And there’s a thorough consideration of all the gray areas that exist among the small-time privateers, officials on the take, hard-pressed local families, and mafia-style gangsters.
But this also creates a problem - it’s har...more
Jeddy is about to tell his father what happened to Viola.
Action-packed tale of the rum runners during Prohibition. Loved it. The author paced the story very well, letting it unfold in its own time. One of my favorites of 2006.
Another misplaced title in the adult audiobook section at the local library, Black Duck is a story of prohibition as seen through the eyes of a couple of young boys, just on the verge of entering high school. The insights into what life for the youth of America must have been like makes this fictional tale an ideal option for any high school teacher of U.S. History. The author has obviously researched life along the coast during the era of Prohibition and the Great Depression, and provides a r...more
Well this is a good book if you want to learn about history. I really can't say much else
I joined the Battle of the Books at my school, and this was one of the books on the reading list. I started reading it, and wasn't sure if it was going to be very good. I soon found out that it was historical-as it takes place during the Prohibition-and kept me wondering what was going to happen. Even though it started fairly slow, I think this is a very good book. The interview intertwined into the story adds more of a personal perspective to the book. If you are in the mood for an adventerous...more
2009 Caudill Nominee - okay for all - Nice story. Young David interviews older Reuben about a Rum Running incident in 1929. Goes back and forth in time,between interview and the year in life of Reuben. Reuben and Jeddy find the murdered body of a rum runner they take a tobacco bag in the tobacco bag is half of a $50 dollar bill. Reuben learns that the $50 dollar bill is a ticket for a big rum deal, when others find it missing from the body, trouble results. Conflicts between friends, fathers ...more
I liked this book. It's a mystery where a boy named Jeddy and Ruban, who are best friends, find a dead body at the beach. They call Jeddy's father who happens to be a police cheif. Since he isn't there, a man named Charlie comes, and when he comes back, the body has vanished!
The story starts off slow, sort of boring, but gets a lot better! During the story, it stated off confusing, but after a few chapters, I came to understand what happened. It could have done better explaining what ha...more
The story starts off slow, sort of boring, but gets a lot better! During the story, it stated off confusing, but after a few chapters, I came to understand what happened. It could have done better explaining what ha...more
Black Duck was probably the most confusing book I've ever read, thus the four stars. It takes place during the Prohibition, and Black Duck is the name of the boat. I believe about once a week the boat comes with liquor and alcohol- and of course, this was illegal. A boy, the main character, sees them by accident, and tries to make the right decision- should he tell someone, or should he keep it to himself? Even though it was confusing, I wouldn't be surprised if I saw this book in any histor...more
(Genre:children's fiction/historical) The "Black Duck" was the actual name of a boat that ran liquor (a rum runner) during prohibition in the 1920-1930's along the New England coast. This book is told from the viewpoint of Ruben, a teenager living in a small Rhode Island coastal town during that same time period. As the story unfolds, the author does a great job of letting you see the effects (both positive and negative) of the illegal rum running and how it could impact the lives of s...more
Anyone interested in some alcohol? Well of course you are, because we are here in the 1920's at the peak of Prohibition right alongside the smugglers who denied to be tethered by such a law.
A young boy and his friend live along the coast in New England and one day stumble across a body while combing the beach. Their find leads them down a mysterious path that completely obliterates the general security that everything they thought they knew falsely instilled in them. Pitted agains...more
A young boy and his friend live along the coast in New England and one day stumble across a body while combing the beach. Their find leads them down a mysterious path that completely obliterates the general security that everything they thought they knew falsely instilled in them. Pitted agains...more
Aspiring newshound David Peterson wants to find a story that will get him a job with the local newspaper. He knows that rum-running was rampant in his small coastal town back in the 1920s. He asks around. He reads some newspaper accounts. His haphazard research leads him to Ruben Hart.
Maybe it's his age that compels Ruben to tell the story that's never been told. Maybe it's because David reminds him of his childhood friend Jeddy. Whatever it is, Ruben soon has David so enthralled in ...more
Maybe it's his age that compels Ruben to tell the story that's never been told. Maybe it's because David reminds him of his childhood friend Jeddy. Whatever it is, Ruben soon has David so enthralled in ...more
Virginia Readers' Choice 2008-2009. Recommended for gr. 5-8. Should appeal to boys. The bulk of the story is told as a flashback. David is a 14-year-old who wants to break into the newspaper business so that he does not need to follow his father into landscaping. He decides to research rum-running in his community during the Prohibition era. He interviews Ruben, an older man who is rumored to have been involved in rum-running. Ruben's story takes over the book, interspersed with brief ret...more
Black Duck takes the reader on an action-filled ride of adventure with sinister and sneaky undertones. It is 1929, and Prohibition is tearing a country, not to mention communities and families, apart. Ruben Hart and Jeddy McKenzie are best friends and while both feel their fathers are law-abiding and upstanding citizens, Jeddy has more to prove because his father is chief of police. Jeddy upholds the law no matter what...even if it means implicating someone he loves and cares about. Prohibition ...more
Reviewed by Jennifer Rummel for TeensReadToo.com
David's dream is to become a reporter. His father wants him to help run the family landscaping business.
David's dream leads him to a man, Ruban, with possible connections to the Black Duck, the famous rum-running boat during the prohibition in Rhode Island.
David tells Ruban that he's a senior in high school and might get published in the local newspaper. In reality, David is just starting his freshman year. Rub...more
David's dream is to become a reporter. His father wants him to help run the family landscaping business.
David's dream leads him to a man, Ruban, with possible connections to the Black Duck, the famous rum-running boat during the prohibition in Rhode Island.
David tells Ruban that he's a senior in high school and might get published in the local newspaper. In reality, David is just starting his freshman year. Rub...more
The story, about "rumrunners" off the coast of Rhode Island, moved along fairly well. I thought it lagged in a few spots, but still it is a good, fast read. The target age group surprised me a bit. I'm not really comfortable with the "good guys" being the law breakers and the "bad guy" being someone who wanted to follow the law with the 6th grade-ish group. However, the characters are well done and the book does provide some thought provoking ideas about the age ...more
This book caught my eye the moment I walked down that aisle, this is because any book about history always gets my attention. What I learned from this book is don't trust anyone who acts suspicious or doesn't make eye contact. That usually means that they did something they don't want anyone to know even their best friend. They may even have committed a crime, but this was only to worry about in the rum-running days of the 1920's, which you were breaking the law: American Prohibition.
In December of 1929 the Black Duck's crew, known for smuggling illegal cases of liquor during the Prohibition era, were shot at by the Coast Guard. Three crew members were killed and one was injured. To this day, no one knows if the Coast Guard gave fair warning before opening fire, and who tipped them off about the Black Duck's approach. Janet Taylor Lisle takes these facts and weaves them into a mysterious tale of intrigue, gangsters and suspense leaving the reader to draw their own conclusion...more
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