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163rd out of 187 books
—
140 voters
The Wreckers (High Seas Adventures #1)
by
Iain Lawrence (Goodreads Author)
There was once a village bred by evil. On the barren coast of Cornwall, England, lived a community who prayed for shipwrecks, a community who lured storm-tossed ships to crash upon the sharp rocks of their shore. They fed and clothed themselves with the loot salvaged from the wreckage; dead sailors' tools and trinkets became decorations for their homes. Most never question...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
November 9th 1999
by Yearling
(first published May 11th 1998)
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I've read this book about 20 times; four classes of 8th graders per year, times 5 years...you get the picture. The book is well-crafted and is a pretty quick read for my students, and it provides opportunity to discuss relevant terminology (flashback, foreshadowing, figurative language, etc.) and the book clearly holds their attention as John, a 14 year-old boy sees his father's boat intentionally drawn in and wrecked on the rocks of Pendennis, a fictional town along the southern English shoreli...more
The first book in the High Seas Trilogy. In 1799, 14-year-old John Spencer of London falls in love with life at sea on his first voyage as a passenger on his father's merchant sailing ship. Then a storm claims the vessel and its crew. Washed onto a Cornish beach, John feels lucky, but soon finds himself in great danger. The nearby village of Pendennis supports itself communally through the practice of "wrecking": tricking vessels onto the lethal coastal rocks, then looting the remains. However,...more
Jun 17, 2010
Tracy
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Chris Swensen
Recommended to Tracy by:
Guys Read website
This is one of those recommended books off of Guys Read that I have been getting for Ryan lately. I end up reading a lot of his books when he says they are good. He gives this 4 stars. He warns that there are a lot of sailing words, but you don't have to know what they mean, just skip them.
This is a strange little book, almost a horror novel for kids. It was quite creepy (in a good way), and tense. A dark story with lots of normal people gone bad. Living with how bad they've gone makes many of t...more
This is a strange little book, almost a horror novel for kids. It was quite creepy (in a good way), and tense. A dark story with lots of normal people gone bad. Living with how bad they've gone makes many of t...more
I'm torn about this book. It was certainly adventurous and exciting, but the subject matter was SO DARK and the people were SO EVIL!!! Wreckers deliberately lighting signals to make a ship crash on the rocks and then deliberately killing any survivors - this is a level of depravity so deep that I found horrifying and haunting. I really wouldn't have wanted to read this as a child nor will I recommend it to my children. Thankfully, there is a satisfying ending and some heroic and likeable charact...more
My 9-year old son picked this out for us to read as our first book for our "mom and me" book club. Being the only two members, he gets to select the books we read. I read the book and really enjoyed it. There were parts that jumped around a bit - I actually thought I missed a page at one point. I appreciated that it wasn't some predictable bit of fluff, though. It kept me guessing until the final chapters. As for my son's review, he never even opened the book. He would have liked it if he had!
John Spencer barely makes it to shore after his father's ship, the Isle of Skye, is shipwrecked. It was lured onto the rocks by a false beacon, and the villagers of Pendennis are responsible. John's father makes it also, but he is held captive. John is taken in by the local Laird, but doesn't know if he can be trusted. With only the help of the laird's neice, Mary, John must solve to plot of the wreckers before his father dies.
This is one to pick up if you like stories like Treasure Island, Jamaica Inn, and Moonfleet.
John Spencer survives the wreck of his father's ship, and finds himself on the beach amid wreckage and bodies. When he sees some men drown another survivor, John tries to run away before he too can be killed. But the wreckers don't want to kill him; they want him to tell where his father - a captive - has hidden the gold or diamonds they are sure were in the ship's cargo. John is taken in by Simon Mawgan, who has right of the wreck, and his niece Mary, but Simon has a violent temper and disappea...more
This book started out a little slow and I didn't think I was going to finish it, but by the middle of the book I was actually wondering how it would end and so I finished it. This would be a great story for 4th through 6th graders I think. It is a story of a boy, John Spencer, that survived a shipwreck. What he had to find out was if the wreck was accidental or murder. The adventure that he gets himself into is filled with twists and turns.
Wow! What a book! It's so exciting when a book blows me away - it may not be the best book I've ever read, or something that I would adore if I'd known about it going into it, but this was entirely unexpected and I loved it. It's definitely one of the darkest books I've read (in the first couple of chapters, a ship is wrecked on a coast by villagers who lured it there by false harbor lights, a teenaged boy is chased by villagers who want to kill him to eliminate any survivors, and he encounters...more
A very interesting spin on the typical pirate story. I liked it. I did wish that the author would have put in a diagram of ship so that I could really understand some of what he was saying. It all worked out. I just pulled out my very worn copy of the The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (if you haven't read it, DO!) and figured out where exactly the upper-main topsail was. :)
Kind of weird...what kind of people would purposely wreck ships and then kill any survivors so that no one survived? I know that the people of the village depend on the wrecked ships for supples, but the rule that a ship can not be salvaged unless all of the crew are dead is completely insane!!
Emma read this book and said it was REALLY good. I thought I'd give it a try. While I was reading it I kept thinking "I can't believe that Emma read this". It was intense and suspenseful. It had gore and murder and mystery and I didn't want to put it down. I'd definitely recommend the book.
This was not a book I would typically choose to read--I happened into our book room on a qwest to find a book very quickly and figured I would read a few chapters and then find a different book--and I was so surprised at this book! It truly lured me in and I really enjoyed reading it!
When I read the book it was good but didn't move me or anything. Years later I still find myself thinking about this book which is pretty amazing considering I read it four years ago and book don't stay with me for long. I recomend this book for a quick but unique read.
This is a great "boy book". It is organized around a rather dark plot--running ships aground for profit--which makes it even more appealing. John is a great character. I've decided to read other books by Iain Lawrence because this story is so well written.
Exciting adventure in Cornwall of shipwrecks, hidden treasure, pirates, wind-swept moors, a Reverend, a man called Stumps (guess why), a rich merchant living in a remote mansion, ghostly lights on a cliff and a mob of townsfolk. A very enjoyable and absorbing story and I've already ordered the next few in this series.
I assigned this book as summer reading because I have a few reluctant boy readers in my class and I knew they would want something short, but I have to say that I was totally sucked into this book myself! John Spencer is accompanying his father on a trip aboard his father's trading ship when the ship wrecks on the coast near Cornwall. The crew is either killed in the wreck or murdered by the locals, John's father is missing (or held hostage?) and John is alternately chased by men with knives and...more
This is a very exciting story but very sinister - perhaps too much so for younger children. Parts of it disturbed my eight-year-old. It is in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson, but a little blacker. The characters are credible and the historic setting is captured well by the author. Overall, it was a good read.
Took me almost 4 months to finish! Slow paced and at times super confusing due to all the nit picky details. Not a go to book but it's a wonderful imaginative book that's a great adventure throughout!
Fast-paced action adventure. Chapter 1: here we are on a storm-tossed ocean, aboard a ship destined to crash on the rocks. I read it with a student at Oxford, my last act of rebellion before moving ;-)
Teen John Spence is shipwrecked along with his father off the coast of England and finds the local inhabitants to be a much less than welcoming group.
RA Notes: Violence
RA Notes: Violence
I liked it.
Lotsa gruesome details to skip when reading aloud. There actually were people who lured ships onto rocks so they could salvage the wreck.
Lotsa gruesome details to skip when reading aloud. There actually were people who lured ships onto rocks so they could salvage the wreck.
Thrilling and nautical. Great relationship development. Interesting premise and well-told story. Another gem from the fantastic young adult section.
Boys who are good readers would especially enjoy this story of villagers who lure ships to crash on the shore, loot the ships, and leave no survivors.
I think this book is very good. It has lots of twists and turns and I wanted to keep reading. Many things happen to keep you interested.
This was a good read- it was about a boy who survived a shipwreck, but then had to learn to survive something more sinister...
A nailbiting adventure yarn indeed. Not one I'd read twice, but certainly an excellent book for the classroom library.
In the beginning it was exciting but as it progresses i kinda got bored
The characters were weak but overall its a fair story
The characters were weak but overall its a fair story
This is a good, spooky mystery/adventure for curling up on a chilly, stormy evening.
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Mar 13, 2012 11:57am