Details
Rent Black Duck
Author:
Narrator: David Ackroyd
Format: Unabridged-CD
Publisher: Listening Library
Published: Apr 2007
Genre: Children & Young Adults Fiction - General
Retail Price: $35.00
Discs: 5
Synopsis
When Ruben and Jed find the dead body on the Rhode Island shore, they are certain it has something to do with smuggling liquor. It is the l920's, Prohibition is in full swing, and almost everyone in the shore community is involved. Suddenly, the boys find themselves involved as well: Didn't the dead man have something on him, and didn't they take it? It isn't long before Ruben is actually on the legendary Black Duck itself, caught in a war between two of the most ferocious prohibition gangs.
Filled with resounding mystery and suspense by Newbery Honor winner Janet Taylor Lisle, Black Duck is original, gripping historical fiction.
Reviews
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.