A Newbery Medalist offers a new pirate adventure set in San Diego, California, in 1846. Twelve-year-old Shipwreck, a cabin boy on the pirate ship "The Giant Rat of Sumatra," is so named because he survived a shipwreck. This is his story. Illustrations.
A swashbuckling tale of thievery and revenge
"The Giant Rat of Sumatra" is the most notorious pirate ship in the Pacific. Its ferocious figurehead, a rat with crooked teeth and gouged-out eyes, strikes fear in the heart of every seafaring crew. Now the ship has dropped anchor in San Diego. Twelve-year-old cabin boy Shipwreck -- so named after he was rescued from the sea by the pirates -- is anxious to begin his long journey home to Boston. Instead, he finds himself swept up in a treacherous plot. It seems his adventure is only just beginning. . . .