The Curse of Captain LaFoote: Black Sails, Dark Hearts

By Eddie Jones

Description:

* 2012 winner of the Moonbeam Children's Book Award in the Pre-Teen Fiction/Fantasy category
* 2011 winner of the Selah award in Young Adult fiction

Book Summary
If you drowned and the sea spit you out, thrusting you back into an age of pirates, buried treasure and beauty beyond belief... would you stay?

RICKY BRADSHAW has never sailed the Caribbean Sea, searched for buried treasure or battled pirates on the deck of a Spanish Galleon. He's never fallen through the floor of Davy Jones' locker, befriended a witch doctor or watched an old fisherman morph into a porpoise. All Ricky knows is his lonely life with his widowed mom in a tiny apartment overlooking a marina on the Chesapeake Bay.

But all that changes on a snowy Christmas Eve when Ricky's apartment building burns down and he falls into the chilly waters while trying to save BARNACLE, a mangy mutt with shrimp breath. Suddenly Ricky finds himself confronted by his neighbor, a young woman in a pink bathrobe who jumped to her death in order to escape the flames. She offers him a choice: go with her to a wonderful afterlife where snowflakes taste like candy or return to the dreary old world he knows. Ricky picks the past and awakes on a raft in the middle of the sea where there is surprising beauty on every island, danger around every corner and great honor and glory ahead of him... if only Ricky can summon the courage to survive the curse of Captain LaFoote.

The perfect book for any teen or tween who enjoys adventure, humor and swashbuckling (plus heartbreaking) romance.

Book Takeaway:

Fun read for boys, prompting them to ponder the possibility of time travel and the concept of heaven and hell.

Awards:

Why the author wrote this book:

My goal in writing this book was to spur the imagination of young readers. Boys especially. I wanted to create within boys a desire to read and set sail for a life of adventure on the high seas. I also want to help kids (and adults) who suffer with epilepsy. My goal is to raise $10,000 for the Epilepsy Foundation in honor of Ricky Bradshaw, the hero of the book. (Ricky suffers from epilepsy.) For each book sold, the publisher will donate a few pieces of eight—half a sandy dollar—to the Epilepsy Foundation. Finally, this book and the other sin the Caribbean Chronicles series emphasizes virtuous living.