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    Black Duck
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    Black Duck
    Unavailable
    Black Duck
    Audiobook5 hours

    Black Duck

    Written by Janet Taylor Lisle

    Narrated by David Ackroyd

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 10, 2007
    ISBN9780739355626
    Unavailable
    Black Duck
    Author

    Janet Taylor Lisle

    Janet Taylor Lisle (b. 1947) is an author of children’s fiction. After growing up in Connecticut, Lisle graduated from Smith College and spent a year working for the volunteer group VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) before becoming a journalist. She found that she loved writing human interest and “slice of life” stories, and honed the skills for observation and dialogue that would later serve her in her fiction. Lisle took a fiction writing course in 1981, and then submitted a manuscript to Richard Jackson, a children’s book editor at Bradbury Press who was impressed with her storytelling. Working with Jackson, Lisle published her first novel, The Dancing Cats of Applesap, in 1984. Since then she has written more than a dozen books for young readers, including The Great Dimpole Oak (1987) and Afternoon of the Elves (1989), which won a Newbery Honor. Her most recent novel is Highway Cats (2008).

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    Reviews for Black Duck

    4/5

    138 ratings15 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I am not sure I've read a book for young adults that deals with the topic of Prohibition. This was a most interesting read and found it difficult to put down. The author takes the true story of the Black Duck rum-running boat and weaves in a few extra characters and events and turns it the story into a tense and page-turning adventure. Very good.
    • 5/5
      Audiobook review: Narrated by David Ackroyd. A suspenseful mystery about a period of history that a lot of kids probably don't learn about anymore (Prohibition.) David Ackroyd's narration as the elder Ruben telling his story captures the excitement and concern of a younger Ruben witnessing the effects of liquor smuggling in his small town. Well-paced, suspenseful, and narrator David gives the story a compelling urgency.
    • 5/5
      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 conclusions about that fateful 1929 evening.
    • 3/5
      This book would have gotten a higher rating if I had liked the David parts better. The perspective in those sections annoyed me. I realize why Lisle did it, to make the story of Reuben less confusing, but I didn't like it at all.
    • 4/5
      This book was about the time during the prohibition against alcohol. The book starts in present time though. It starts off with a boy in highschool who is a reporter and his story is about Mr.Hart. People think that Mr.Hart, an elderly man, was involved in drug smuggling in his past. So David, the highschool boy, goes to Mr. Hart's house to try and talk to him, When David first goes to Mr.Hart's house, Mr.Mart completely denies that he had anything to do with drug smuggling and sends David back to his own house. But David has done his research and really thinks that Mr.Hart was involved in the smuggling so he goes back for some more information. Eventually Mr.Hart starts telling David the stories about how he lived in a small town where a lot of people were smuggling. Also at that time when there was still the prohibition his best friend's dad was the sheriff of the small town. So then Mr.Hart then became not even friends with his old best friend anymore and he gets involved in drug smuggling. Then Mr.Hart tells David of all his adventures. Towards the end of the story Mr.Harts tell David about how he was kidnapped but then saved by the captain of the famous drug smuggling boat "The Black Duck." So this book is about how a highschooler boy gets told amazing stories by an old man who used to live in the prohibition.I gave this book a four star rating because of the way the book was written. It was very descriptive in some parts but in other parts there could have been more detail. Also this book has a great story too it. I also liked that the story wasn't all placed in one time period it goes back and forth between times. I also liked that author used different characters from different places and even described their accents. I also liked how the author gave Mr.Hart many problems he had to face when he was young. He had more than just the one main problem of the whole prohibition but he also had other problems like his friends, parents, school, and working at the store with his dad. So i gave this book a four star rating because it was mostly good but it could have been better in some parts.
    • 5/5
      What a fantastic book for young adults! The book is a young boy's perspective on what takes place one year. His impression of how town folks react to prohibition
    • 5/5
      very well written and lots of excitement and things going on
    • 5/5
      This story goes back and forth between more modern times and the 1920s. A young boy is trying to find out the truth about what really happened on the Black Duck - a boat that ran rum during Prohibition. He finds the last person alive who may know about it and the story slowly unwinds to show the truth of what really happened.
    • 3/5
      A good story about a kid who wants to write an expose for the paper about the rum running that supposedly took place in his town. He finds an old codger who agrees to tell him about it. Made some interesting points about right and wrong, robin hood, stealing, etc.
    • 4/5
      So far, my favorite of this year's Caudill's. It's about bootlegging during Prohibition and takes place off the New Hampshire Coast. The book actually takes place in the 2000's with an aspiring reporter - a high school freshman - interviewing a man he believes might have been a bootlegger. During the course of several days, our reporter researches newspaper archives and listens to the old man tell his story. Over 90% of the book is the man detailing his adventure. His tale gets pretty intense and draws the reader right in; it's definitely Young Adult material.
    • 4/5
      When Ruben and his best friend Jeddy find a dead body on the beach in 1929, their lives change as they quickly become swept up in illegal rum-running operations. Although Ruben and Jeddy have always been best friends, Jeddy, son of the local policeman, feels conflicted about getting involved with the rum-runners. Ruben begins to see how much the rum-runners are infiltrating his hometown. Stormbreaker meets Al Capone Does my Shorts in this historical adventure story. I also liked that its subject is one I knew nothing about.
    • 3/5
      This could have been a really neat story of a rarely-told episode from our nation's history. But it felt like it needed another edit to concentrate on the plot and characterization and remove some of the chaff.
    • 5/5
      This is, perhaps, the best historical fiction of the year. Set in the bootlegging days of 1929, Lisle has penned a taut adventure story around the three deaths on the Black Duck and it cargo of rum. Teachers who love tangled ethical questions will love this book. Respectable citizens are complicit in the rum trade and the bootlegging. The sheriff aids and abets criminals. The respectable business owners turn blind eyes to dubious practices in the store after hours. The despicable rumrunner risks death to rescue a young boy. The ethical threads are so entwined and tangled that students will have a difficult time deciding who is right and who is wrong. The historical details enrich the story, not the author. The setting is both historically accurate and perfect for the mood. How many stories do you know that deal with bootlegging? Although there is lots of alcohol in this book, this story is highly recommended for all middle school and high school libraries.
    • 5/5
      An eighth grader wants to be a journalist. He needs a good story. He goes to an old man named Ruben Hart.Ruben Hart, a boy in a small town, had a friend named Jeddy whose father was the Sherrif. They found a dead body and trouble came. People started to rumrun to much. Ruben gets sucked in and he becomes part of a crew...
    • 5/5
      If you have been looking at the top books of 2006 lists that are floating around on lists like YALSA-BK, you will have heard of Black Duck. It seems to be one of the top choices of the year. And I completely agree. Black Duck tells the story Ruben, a teen boy at the height of Prohibition and rum running along the New England coast. Ruben and his friend Jeddy find a dead body floating along the beach and are caught up in the question of who the man was and why he was murdered. Ruben, son of the manager at the local grocery store and Jeddy, son of the local chief of police, rarely see eye to eye about whether something has to be reported or not. As their friendship crumbles, Ruben is drawn deeper and deeper into the world of the rum runners, especially the legendary Black Duck.The writing here is perfect, unobtrusive and brisk. It captures the beauty of the setting filled with fog and uninhabited coves, as well as creating a world where the story surges forward carrying readers along. This is a great feat of writing where you get a strong feeling of place but also find that the action is unburdened by it. Readers will find it easy to read along at a breakneck speed as they are caught up in the adventure, but they will also find that they have learned a lot about the Prohibition Era on the way. Recommend this novel to older elementary age and teens who enjoy a good adventure story, especially ones who will appreciate the fact that this is reality-based and could have happened. It should also be recommended to kids who enjoy historical fiction.