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kiwikathleen 's review for:
Monkey Boy
by Donovan Bixley
This book is all it’s promised to be – non-stop adventure on the high seas!
Jimmy joins the navy for two reasons. One, he badly wants to get away from Puddleditch and the Things he sees there; two, he wants a life of excitement like his father has in the merchant navy, and who knows, maybe he'll find him when he gets to the South Seas. But life doesn't usually go along the way you expect it to.
Full of hilarious schoolboy humour, done with an excellent use of language, Monkey Boy also manages to give the reader a lot of factual information about life aboard a ship in the early 1800s. It has plenty to laugh and grimace about concerning bodily functions (so yes, some parents and children won't like it), and lots of gory detail about illness and accidents that befall the sailors (probably the same parents and children won't like that either). But as long as you and your offspring aren't squeamish you'll have a marvellous time as you accompany Jimmy. With him you'll discover that running from something never solves the problem (i.e. he finds Puddleditch has followed him), that hard work will eventually get you accustomed to anything (he loses his landlubber status and begins to understand what's expected of him), and that your expectations can be totally unrealistic so you've just got to make the best of things (i.e. instead of sailing the seven seas, Jimmy goes to war against Napoleon, which at the beginning of the book means sailing back and forth across the English Channel as some sort of blockade).
The narrative is fun, the illustrations and the pages of comic along the way are excellent, as are the double-page spreads of a warship and a cannon. The balance of novel and comic is just right, and this book could either be read aloud or devoured by independent readers.
Jimmy joins the navy for two reasons. One, he badly wants to get away from Puddleditch and the Things he sees there; two, he wants a life of excitement like his father has in the merchant navy, and who knows, maybe he'll find him when he gets to the South Seas. But life doesn't usually go along the way you expect it to.
Full of hilarious schoolboy humour, done with an excellent use of language, Monkey Boy also manages to give the reader a lot of factual information about life aboard a ship in the early 1800s. It has plenty to laugh and grimace about concerning bodily functions (so yes, some parents and children won't like it), and lots of gory detail about illness and accidents that befall the sailors (probably the same parents and children won't like that either). But as long as you and your offspring aren't squeamish you'll have a marvellous time as you accompany Jimmy. With him you'll discover that running from something never solves the problem (i.e. he finds Puddleditch has followed him), that hard work will eventually get you accustomed to anything (he loses his landlubber status and begins to understand what's expected of him), and that your expectations can be totally unrealistic so you've just got to make the best of things (i.e. instead of sailing the seven seas, Jimmy goes to war against Napoleon, which at the beginning of the book means sailing back and forth across the English Channel as some sort of blockade).
The narrative is fun, the illustrations and the pages of comic along the way are excellent, as are the double-page spreads of a warship and a cannon. The balance of novel and comic is just right, and this book could either be read aloud or devoured by independent readers.