Black Duck

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

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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.

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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

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becomes part of a crew...

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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.

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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

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truth of what really happened.

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David dreams of being a newspaper reporter and feels the best way to get a job is to write an interesting story. He uncovers an old news article about a murder in Rhode Island back in 1929 and searches for a witness. David finds Ruben, now elderly and relies on his memory of discovering a dead body

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washed up on the shore to write his story. Ruben and his best friend ran to notify the police, but when they returned to shore the body was gone. Black Duck tells the tale of a rum running boat during the Prohibition and a police force that turns a blind eye toward it. This book is so great! I highly recommend it.

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I did not enjoy this book and was unable to finish it . The main character David hounds Ruben Hart who he believes may have some information on the Black Duck a boat that was used by the bootleggers. The story line is very slow and readers may get bored with the chase. Ruben Hart gives very little

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information so David keeps coming back. Then David is a witness to a crime that the town wants to keep a secret. The book is too slow. If you a patient reader and enjoy mystery you may like it.

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very well written and lots of excitement and things going on

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

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

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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.

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BBYA RGG: Very interesting accounting of bootlegging on the Rhode Island coast in 1929. Less about the Great Depression than the time of Prohibition but some references.

BBYA RGG: Very interesting accounting of bootlegging on the Rhode Island coast in 1929. Less about the Great Depression than the time of Prohibition but some references.

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.

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

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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.

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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

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effects of liquor smuggling in his small town. Well-paced, suspenseful, and narrator David gives the story a compelling urgency.

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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

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into a tense and page-turning adventure. Very good.

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