Ring of the Slave Prince - Hardcover

Bjarne Reuter is the recipient of a special citation from the Hans Christian Andersen Awards committee. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Grade 6-10-Fact blends well with fiction in a 1600s action-packed, high-seas adventure complete with swashbuckling pirates, slave trading, and shipwrecks. Tom O'Connor, 14, is the unlikely hero, a street-smart and fatherless boy who lives on the Caribbean island of Nevis and is told by a fortune teller that he has "blue blood, springwater and a raging pirate all mixed up inside." In a plot that twists and turns, Tom rescues a Spaniard named Ramon and his slave, Boto, from a shipwreck, only to be told that the slave is the son of a wealthy African king. A plan to return the lad to the Bissagos Islands for a reward sets the trio out from Nevis to the dangerous city of Port Royal, Jamaica where they become separated. Tom's capricious nature and prowess as a liar often springs him from the grasp of dangerous pirates and evil landowners that plague his misguided quest. His time spent as an indentured servant on a vividly described plantation changes Tom's views about slavery and the moral compass of the story. His escape to a pirate ship finds him at the mercy of a cutthroat captain and mutinous crew and is wonderfully colorful, and at times gruesome, rivaling any classic tale. All's well that ends well when Tom and Boto reunite as friends.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
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