Jack Plank Tells Tales

by Natalie Babbitt Narrated by John H. Mayer

Overview

Yes, Jack Plank started out to be a pirate. His shipmates all liked him, and their ship, the Avarice, was certainly very beautiful. But after a while it was clear that he wasn't much good at plundering. He just didn't have the knack for it. So what to do?

Jack did the only thing he could do-he went ashore to look for another line of work. The town was called Salt-wash, on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, and he had a lot of helpful advice from the people in Mrs. DelFresno's boardinghouse. Somehow, though, each career he looked into seemed to have something wrong with it. And every night at dinner in the boardinghouse he tried to explain why. For who would want to work where there might be a troll, or the danger of getting a crab caught in your beard? Or what about a music-loving crocodile? There were other things, too, that ran against every suggestion and took the wind out of his sails. 

At last, Jack decided he wouldn't be good at anything onshore and would have to go back to sea, pirate or not. But sometimes, as you probably know already, things work out very nicely when you least expect it.


From the Compact Disc edition.

Editorial Reviews

Julie Just

In her latest book, Babbitt takes an old-fashioned concept and gives it storytelling verve…The earnestness of Jack's delivery adds to the charm, as do Babbitt's comical line drawings.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Billed as Babbitt's first novel in 25 years, this book is really a charming collection of linked stories about the gentler side of pirate life aboard the Avarice. The tale-teller, Jack Plank, understands that "plundering" is not his strong suit: "You have to yell and make faces and rattle your sword.... Jack didn't seem to have a knack for it." So when the pirating economy slows, kindly Captain Scudder is forced to give him the pink slip. Put ashore with a small bag of gold florins donated by his shipmates, Jack finds himself on Saltwash Island, and convinces Mrs. DelFresno to take him in as a boarder. She's not too sure about renting a room to a pirate (his attire gives him away) but daughter Nina, 11, promises to help Jack quickly find a new occupation. Over the next eight days, however, Jack talks himself out of one profession after another by regaling his fellow boarders with colorful stories from his pirating past, featuring ghosts, mermaids and shapeshifters (but no violence), each of which demonstrates why he could never be a farmer, baker, jeweler or barber. Jack's lilting tales make an ideal read-aloud—so long as no one misses an up-close look at Babbitt's skilled pencil drawings. Perceptive readers will figure out long before Jack precisely what profession he's perfect for (the title gives it away), as Babbitt expertly weaves a message into Jack's tales: that stories are just as vital to a community as farming the land or baking bread. Ages 8-up. (May)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

School Library Journal

Gr 2-6 - When a pirate ship falls on hard times, Jack Plank is let go because he is not very good at plundering. Left in the Caribbean town of Saltwash, he has a bit of good luck to temper the bad. Eleven-year-old Nina, the daughter of the widow he boards with, offers to show him around the port town to find work. But at dinner each night, Jack reports to the other boarders his unsuccessful day. Trouble is, Jack is not well suited to be a farmer, baker, fortune-teller, fisherman, barber, goldsmith, actor, or musician, each for a different reason. For instance, he can't farm in the fields across the bridge because he once helped an ungrateful troll reposition itself under it. He can't take edibles from the sea because a shipmate once turned into an octopus and saved his life, and so on. These stories spin out, one each for eight days, at the end of which, the resourceful Nina comes up with the perfect job. Babbitt has a lively time with proper names (Leech, Snipe, Scudder, Old Miss Withers) and swiftly delineates character in short conversations at dinner. Jack's tallish stories make fresh use of familiar folklore motifs: a mummy seeking its missing hand, a mermaid who enchants a sailor, the fate of a feral child raised by seagulls. Babbitt's spare black line drawings introduce each chapter and give readers some indication of the person whose story Jack relates. Some of the tales, which beg to be read aloud, will leave listeners arguing about what really happened while others will make them grin. All in all, this is one treasure of a book.-Susan Hepler, formerly at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Kirkus Reviews

Babbitt's first offering in 25 years does not disappoint. Jack's pirate crew has fallen on hard times, and as Jack prefers not to take part in the plundering and so contributes the least to their profits, the crew decides that they have to let him go. Jack gets a room at Mrs. Delfresno's inn and eagerly begins to look for a second career. However, at the end of each day, Jack returns to the inn disappointed and still jobless. Each evening he explains to Mrs. Delfresno and the other boarders why he simply cannot work as a farmer, or a baker, or a fisherman, or, it seems, anything else. And each explanation is somehow connected to a riveting story from his days as a pirate. Jack's reason, for instance, that he cannot possibly work as a fisherman, is that one of his pirate cohorts, Figley, had morphed into an octopus in the light of the full moon, and for all Jack knows, the fellow might very well still be swimming around somewhere. Jack spins other yarns about fortune tellers, mummy hands, trolls and even a girl who grew up as a seagull. By the final page, it's obvious what Jack (and Babbitt) can do better than almost anyone else-tell a really good story. (Fiction. 8-11)

From the Publisher

Praise for Jack Plank Tells Tales:

A Los Angeles Times Favorite Children's Book of 2007

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2007

New York Public Library "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing"

"Witty, spellbinding, pitch-perfect tales of the high seas from the author of Tuck Everlasting." - Parenting

"One treasure of a book." - School Library Journal

"Perceptive readers will figure out long before Jack precisely what profession he's perfect for...as Babbitt expertly weaves a message into Jack's tales: that stories are just as vital to a community as farming the land or baking bread." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

JUN/JUL 08 - AudioFile

It's 1720, and times are tough on the AVARICE. Jack Plank, a pirate lacking the knack for plundering, finds himself set ashore near the town of Saltwash, Jamaica. Mrs. DelFresno agrees to let him stay at her boardinghouse for a trial week. If the other boarders don't mind and he can find a job, he can stay. Each day 11-year-old Nina accompanies Jack on his job search, and every evening at supper he tells a tale from his pirate days—a tale that demonstrates quite clearly why he couldn't do this job or that. John Mayer brings Natalie Babbitt's ersatz pirate to life. Young listeners will enjoy Jack's swashbuckling tales and will nod in agreement when the perfect job finds Jack. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172018558
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	02/12/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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