Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

Image by Scott Vandehey available through a Creative Commons license

Ahoy, mateys! Get ready to sail the seven seas with the plucky Jacky Faber! He has all the characteristics you'd want in a ship's boy serving in His Majesty's Royal Navy in 1797. Jacky's brave, resourceful and plays a mean pennywhistle.

Only problem? Jacky is really a Mary.

How did this come to be? Find out in L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy (YP FIC MEYER and YP AD FIC MEYER). When she is left abruptly without a family, Mary seeks out alternate means of survival. In doing so, she discovers that taking on the guise of a boy simplifies the already harrowing demands of an orphan left to the mercies of the street.

It's easier bein' a boy, 'cause when someone needs somethin' done like holdin' a horse, they'll always pick a boy 'cause they think the dumbest boy will be better at it than the brightest girl, which is stupid, but there they are.

Mary ends up on the docks, where the Navy ship the H.M.S. Dolphin is assembling its crew. She relies on her inherent charm to earn her passage on board as a ship's boy. Soon enough, though, she learns that passing as a boy — let along a ship's boy — is only the first of many challenges she'll face in such tight quarters. She doesn't know the first thing about ships, and not all her shipmates are friendly. There'll be secret handshakes to learn, pirates to battle and adolescent love to navigate.

Bloody Jack is a rollicking beginning to the adventure series, which thus far encompasses 10 books:

1. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy
2. Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady
3. Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber
4. In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber
5. Mississippi Jack: Being an Account of the Further Waterborne Adventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, And Lily of the West
6. My Bonny Light Horseman: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War
7. Rapture of the Deep: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy
8. The Wake of the Lorelei Lee: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, On Her Way to Botany Bay
9. The Mark of the Golden Dragon: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Jewel of the East, Vexation of the West, and Pearl of the South China Sea
10. Viva Jaquelina: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away
11. Boston Jacky: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Taking Care of Business

Perhaps what I like most about Bloody Jack is how it puts a girl at the front and center of the action. Jacky comes across as a young woman realistically relying on her wits to get her through tough, scary situations. She's funny and fearless, a combination that manages to both get her into trouble and out of it. No fainting flower, is our Jacky.

The audiobook, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, is dynamite. Kellgren voices Jacky's rough, streetwise elocution perfectly, with its outrageous grammar and colorful patois. She portrays Jacky with jaunty confidence while not neglecting honest depictions of the fear and distress Jacky feels in battle or at the thought of discovery. The narration is a wonderful way to experience the story.

Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian YP FIC BASTIAN

Cursed Pirate Girl is her name and adventure and calamity follow her in equal measure.  Tired of being scoffed at and looked down upon, she and the physical embodiment of her curse (a parrot named Pepper Die) head off to find her Pirate Captain father in the legendary Omerta Seas. First she must travel through the Obscurium per Obscurious, a door of fire on the ocean floor.  And what dangers and wonders await her beyond the portal shall shock and astound.  

This is a true treasure.  It begs for very, very close reading, because the illustrations are so finely detailed. Each beautifully illustrated page is chock filled with wonderful humor, hidden gags, and intricate details.  This is a book that is meant to be reread many times to spot all the little hidden touches as well as enjoy the hilarious and whimsical main storyline.  It’s a weird and hilarious mix of Alice in Wonderland , Little Nemo, and classic pirate dime store novels. It feels both classic and timeless the first time you read it.  CPG is a great heroine, because she’s strong, resourceful, and almost insanely fearless. There’s also a lot more to this book besides whimsy and swashbuckling.  Bastian skewers classism, empire, and all other manners of pettiness and hypocrisy.  Another great touch is the books design. It has rough-hewn edges for every page and thick paper to make it feel like a very old book. It is absolutely the best graphic novel I have read all year and it is going to be incredibly hard to top.

You can check our catalog for Cursed Pirate Girl here.

Set to Sea by Drew Weing YP FIC WEING

Arrrr it’s a sailing life for our hero, just not by choice. He is just a gentle giant of a poet who fell asleep on shore looking for inspiration about his book of sea poems, when a sailing crew forces him to be a part of their crew. At sea he faces pirates, storms, and all measures of danger and along the way finds a new kind of poetry in this rollicking and original graphic novel adventure.

Drew Weing has done a load of work on webcomics (a great place for free indie comics!) and single story work, but this is his first bona fide graphic novel. I already can’t wait for what’s next. His style looks like a mix between old Popeye comics (read at 741.5973 SEGAR) and Jeff Smith’s Bone (YP FIC SMITH), but feels like something all its own. Each panel is a full page, but it is a small size book, so the panels aren’t that much larger than they would be in a normal sized graphic novel. It still makes for a huge visual impact to only have one picture per page. The story is pretty simple, there is very little dialog, we don’t get to see character’s thoughts so that leaves only the images to tell the story. That’s a bold feat for an artist and Weing really pulls it off. So if you want a truly fun fast read about the sailing life and like indie comics, then Set to Sea is a sure bet.