Pirates of Rocky Crag Bay and Other Stories

by Rebekah A. Morris, Abigail Steffes (Illustrator), Nikola Belley (Illustrator)

Young Ned Jones is enthralled by pirate stories and when an opportunity arises for him to join a group of real pirates, he sets off with high anticipation. Follow along with Ned as he lives his dream. This story along with eleven others will interest young and old alike with a mixture of humor, tenderness and suspense. Will Nana?s spring house cleaning cause a neighbor to call the police? What surprise is Uncle Scott bringing, and who is stealing the flags from the police memorial?

Genres: Middle Grade

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2012

About the author

Rebekah A. Morris has lived her entire life (as of now) in Missouri. Being home educated during her school years was great, except for writing. That was the worst subject (along with math) that she had to do. It wasn't until after she graduated that she discovered the joys and wonder of writing. Now she can't write enough. After spending six years in research and writing, she completed her first book, "Home Fires of the Great War," a 500+ page, historical fiction about home life in the United States and Canada during the First World War. Since then, she has been an avid writer and always has more than one story going on at once because only one story at a time got tiring and dull.

Get a free collection of stories here: https://sendfox.com/lp/3ezo5k

Reviews

[Angie Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's really hard to rate and review a collection of stories, but I really enjoyed this one! Short stories aren't always my favorite format, either, so the fact that I enjoyed so many of these so much should tell you something. ;) My only real problem was that I couldn't always tell what the time period was supposed to be, although it usually didn't matter that much.

Just for fun, I'll give you a little taste of my thoughts on the different stories. No spoilers here, but maybe enough to whet your curiosity!

Pirates of Rocky Crag Bay - A little over the top, but I loved the descriptions of Ned having to be dragged out from under the piano. :) - 3 stars

On Being Neighborly - Very funny! - 3.5 stars

In the Father's Embrace - Liked this one a lot! Great characterization, even though most of the characters weren't named for several pages. - 4 stars

Fishing for a Little Peace and Quiet - Reminded me of my own family vacations at the beginning. :) Very exciting near the end! - 4 stars

Lost in the Dunes - I love survival stories. Nuff said. :D - 4 stars

One Day Mystery - Why have I never thought of dipping peanut butter sandwiches in hot cocoa?!? I must try this! - 3 stars

A Garden Plot - The diary format was perfect for this one! And what a sneaky group of siblings! (In a good way, of course.) - 4 stars

My Best Adventure - Not the most exciting story in the bunch, but cute, and I really liked the way it wrapped up. - 3.5 stars

Wishing for Sherbet - Not quite sure why I liked this one so much, unless it was the fun of the serenade. ;) The descriptions were really well done, too. - 4 stars

Danny's Thanksgiving - My favorite part of this one was the way Josh knew Danny better than he knew himself sometimes. - 3.5 stars

A Good Summer - Things were set up for a nice little story with a hint of mystery, and then the kids arrived--and melted me into an adoring puddle with their Irish accents. <3 I think I could have loved a story about them watching paint dry, as long as they were talking while watching it! Don't worry, the story itself was better than that. ;) The only thing I would have liked better was to get a bit of more of Angelina's story and background. But those accents!!! <3<3<3 - 5 stars

Mystery at Random - Absolutely fell in love with this gang of kids and was rooting so hard for them to solve the mystery! - 4.5 stars

My first plan was to give this some sort of averaged rating, which comes out around 4 stars, but since a couple of the stories come out higher than that, I'll go with the highest rating instead. :) I know I'll be reading a bunch of these again! (And again, and again...)

[Rebekah Morris]

Rereading some of my earliest short stories brought back smiles and many memories about why I wrote or what started me writing each story. It was quite fun to read again.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a charming collection of short stories. I'd recommend this for all ages. Great characters throughout. These stories would be great to read at kids bedtimes.

[Laura Lane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Miss Morris for giving me this free copy for review.
Pirates of Rocky Crag Bay is filled with wholesome adventure stories for youngsters that would be good for read alouds. They are short enough to keep a child's attention and long enough to enjoy a good cuddle. I think that these tales would be nice to read at bedtime. I found the stories to be interesting, and many of the stories have a good moral. My youngest is twelve years old. She read a few stories and thought they were a bit young for her. We think that it would be good for children from about four to ten years old. Older children may enjoy reading them alone. I know it's not always easy to find books for young boys. Rebekah Morris is a writer to watch. I invite you to take a look at the book here and see what you think.

[Avery · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Katja Labonté · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars & 3/10 hearts. The first time I read this book (about a year ago), I found it somewhat disappointing and dull. This time, however, I found it enjoyable. Some of the characters I particularly liked—Elliott (who hardly features at all, sadly!), Niles, Paige & Shawn, Angelina, Jeff... The stories held my attention even if I had read them once before. Some were whimsy and cute; all had a slight, delightful old-fashioned flavour. In short, they were worth the read.

A Favourite Quote: “‘Paige, you and Katrina are in that Embrace. I’m not.’
“‘You can be. He said whosoever will come, He will in no wise cast out.’
“‘Paige?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘He took me.’
“‘I knew He would.’”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “The sun which had cast such a glory of pink, gold, purple and blue into the sky, now seemed to have decided that it had had enough of the day and, almost without a second thought, had slid behind the mountains, leaving the group to the glimmering stars and a sliver of a silver moon.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “Some three hours later, Ned suddenly felt himself being dragged out from under the piano by his feet. ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ he demanded of his brother.
“‘Fetching you for supper.’
“[...] No sooner was [Ned] excused from the table than he raced back to his cave where he stayed until once again he was dragged out by Rob; only this time it was for bed.”