The Night Ship

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The greatest disgrace of humankind is the failure of the strong to protect the week. We don’t need monsters, . . . , we are the monsters.” The creativity is remarkable, the writing is beautifully descriptive and yet, I was a bit confused at times, and found myself rereading sections to fully understand the inferences within the story line. This felt like an intensely concentrated story and I didn't want to miss even the smallest detail of its uniqueness or the diversity of the characterizations. Believe me, there is no shortage of characters in this story and it is the author's keen writing ability that keeps them all weirdly different and distinguishable. Mayken closes her eyes and listens, to the billow of canvas and the rasp of rope and the plash of water on the hull. The ship creaks, heeling as her massive sails fill with wind. And beyond this, the ship’s own song in the accent of the forest she is made from – a whole forest of trees! In the ship’s song is the memory of branches and leaves tasting the wind. The heartbeat of the slow-growing oak, the rushing pine.

Watch yourself,” warns Pelgrom. “Aft-the-mast you’re protected. The rest of the ship has different rules. Don’t expect people to treat you nicely. You’re not fine anymore.” Pelgrom, it seems, has a particular gift: the gift of knowing exactly what you need and then giving it to you.

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I like misadventures.” Mayken gathers a spit in her mouth, thinks twice, swallows it. “And I’m not a fine lady.” Each character brings something different to the story. Did you relate to any of them in particular? If so, please explain who and why. The Batavia replica was constructed between 1985 and 1995 at the Bataviawerf (Batavia shipyard) in Lelystad, The Netherlands. Image: Malis via Wiki Commons - image and text from Sea Museum The same. He makes it his business to know every last soul on board. Stonecutter counts the bloody rats. He’d know straightaway that you are an impostor. And if you get caught—” The characters were incredibly written, especially Mayken, a child aboard the Batavia. The tale is told alternating between 1629 and 1989, but this is the part that baffles me. Maybe I didn’t quite understand the book properly, but I don’t understand how the fate of the children involved in the two different timelines were connected. Gil (the child in 1989) had an interest in the Batavia when he saw the divers, but he was living a completely different storyline, and that wasn’t his focus. But again, maybe that’s me just not quite gripping this storyline entirely.

Mayken is a fine lady so she gets the winched seat, which is a plank with ropes attached at the corners. An old sailor wearing an India shawl around his head helps her up. You are aft-the-mast,’ he tells them, pointing to the vast mainmast. ‘You can never go forward of that.’ I was intrigued to read that Jess Kidd had turned her hand to writing historical fiction with a story based on an actual event. I wondered if she would still be able to introduce her usual magic when writing about hard facts. Of course she does and does it beautifully too.She is beautiful. Her upper works are painted green and yellow and at her prow—oh, best of all—crouches a carved red lion! His golden mane curls, his claws sink into the beam. He snarls down at the water.

It was a complete surprise to me, I did not expect such things at all. Unfairly extremely sad. I enjoy the author's writing style; the short chapter and the story narrated by two young children make it more bitter. I will definitely try other Jess Kidd books to torture myself. Another time, Imke took Mayken to the Church of Saint Bavo, the jewel of Haarlem. The old nursemaid told her to open her eyes and take notice. Mayken opened her eyes and took notice. Even so she missed the grin of a stone gargoyle and the wink of a wooden toad on the choir stall. year-old Mayken, a dutch girl from an affluent family, boards the Batavia for a months-long journey to her new home in the Dutch East Indies. What she finds aboard is a world of wonder, not only begging for exploration but also a world that puts her life in danger.Memorable moments and scenes. The hunt for Bullebak/Bunyip, The Raggedy Tree, The swimming contest, and all things Enkidu. Mayken’s relationship s were so very touching. Imke with her gift of prophecy and the game she played with Mayken guessing how Imke lost her fingers. My favorite character was Holdfast, his interactions with Mayken, and the tales he told. Because I absolutely loved where it was going before everything capsized into dullness, and because I'm a fan of Jess Kidd's poetic prose, I'm still going to award it four stars. The author makes general comparisons at first, and as she reveals more of their lives, the similarities are almost word for word. How would you characterize the tone of the story? How does the language contribute to the tone? What else contributes to it?

Discuss the differences and similarities between Mayken and Gil. Despite their being more than three hundred years apart, what are some of their shared experiences? There are two narrative arcs both involving young protagonists, a young girl and boy. They have many similarities. Both are nine years of age; both have lost their mother, both believe there is a monster haunting them, and both may meet their end in the same geographical location though centuries apart. Mirroring Mayken’s life on the Batavia in many ways is that of another nine year old, Gil in 1989. Both children have recently lost their mothers and while Mayken is being taken by her nursemaid to her father in the East Indies, Gil is sent to live with his grandfather, a cray fisherman on the Abrohlos. Both are unusual children with active imaginations and have imaginary monsters lurking nearby. In Gil’s case it is the Bunyip, luring children into its waterhole and in Mayken’s case it is the Bullebak who she believes lives in the bottom of the ship. However, neither is yet aware that there are real monsters even closer who mean them real harm.I wasn’t sure how Kidd was going to knit the two stories together, but she did! This is a heavily researched story about the souls on the Batavia. Kidd provides an epilogue which illuminates the fact from the fiction. An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored. She will keep us safe, though there’ll be storms and shipworms outside and in. To the ‘Batavia’ we must cling.’”