Black Duck, Janet Taylor Lisle
Black Duck, Janet Taylor Lisle
3 Rating(s)
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Black Duck

Author: Janet Taylor Lisle

Narrator: David Ackroyd

Unabridged: 5 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/10/2007

Synopsis

When Ruben and Jeddy find a dead body in an evening suit washed up on the shore, they are certain it has to do with smuggling liquor. It is spring 1929, Prohibition is in full swing, and many in their community are involved.

Soon the boys, along with Jeddy’s strong-willed sister, Marina, are drawn in, suspected by rival bootlegging gangs of taking something crucial off the dead man. Then Ruben meets the daring captain of the Black Duck, the most elusive smuggling craft of them all, and it isn’t long before he’s keeping dangerous company.

Inspired by very real accounts of the Black Duck, a legendary rum-running boat that worked the New England shores during the era, Newbery Honor winner Janet Taylor Lisle has produced a colorful, original work of historical fiction.

About The Author

Janet Taylor Lisle was born in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up in Farmington, Connecticut, spending summers on the coast of Rhode Island. The eldest and only daughter in a family of five children, she was educated at local schools and at fifteen entered the Ethel Walker School, a girl's boarding school in Simsbury, Connecticut.After graduation from Smith College in 1969 with a degree in English literature, she enlisted and was trained for work in VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). She lived and worked for the next two years in Atlanta, Georgia, organizing food-buying cooperatives in the city's public housing projects and teaching in an early child-care center. Catalyzed by this experience, she enrolled in journalism courses at Georgia State University with the idea of writing about the poverty she had seen. This was the beginning of a reporting career that extended over the next ten years.With the birth of her daughter in 1977, Lisle turned to writing projects that could be accomplished at home. In 1984, The Dancing Cats of Applesap, her first novel for children, was published. Subsequently, she has published ten other novels.David Ackroyd is an audiobook narrator known for Legacy, Creatures of a Kingdom, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Never Fuck Up, Swamplandia, A Boy and His Bot, First Light, Hoodwinked, and many more.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Lisa the Librarian on 2008-02-22 13:00:15

A fourteen-year-old interviews an old rum-runner, who tells him the story of his family and friends in 1929, during Prohibition, when everyone was smuggling or taking bribes. This book has marvelous historical details that do not drag the story down, but make it all atmospheric. The characters are well done, except for a the sheriff, who really needed a little more justification. The weakest link is the young journalist, who --at the end-- acts uncommonly stupid when he is supposed to be so clever. But this is a very good story, well told by the narrator, David Ackroyd.

Goodreads review by Jeannie on December 31, 2009

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......more

Goodreads review by Aditya on October 16, 2023

Mystery, Crime, Historical, Real Events......more

Goodreads review by Janae on May 03, 2023

I'm not usually a huge fan of young adult fiction but this book was moving and highlighted some very fascinating moral and relational dilemmas. The plot moved a little too slowly in the beginning and then rushed it all together at the end but other than that, I highly enjoyed this book.......more

Goodreads review by Chase on February 21, 2016

Ruben and Jeddy are best friends and in 1929 when they find a dead body on the shore they think it has to do with smuggling liquor. Soon they tell Jeddy's dad (the chief of police), he goes to investigate it. Later they find out that the dead man was smuggling liquor. When liquor is illegal during t......more

Quotes

Lots of adventure and mystery. (VOYA)

Riveting mystery and nonstop adventure. (School Library Journal)

The setting's cinematic detail brings the exhilarating action close, and readers will easily see themselves in young Ruben. (Booklist)

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