Summary
After being exposed as a girl, Jacky Faber is forced to leave the Dolphin and attend the elite Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston. But growing up on the streets of London and fighting pirates never prepared Jacky for her toughest battle yet: learning how to be a lady.
Everything she does is wrong. Her embroidery is deplorable, her French is atrocious, and her table manners--disgusting! And whenever Jacky roams the city in search of adventure, trouble is never far behind. Then there's the small matter of her blue anchor tattoo. . . .
So will Jacky ever become a typical lady? Not bloody well likely! But whether she's triumphing over her snobbish classmates, avenging a serving girl's murder, or winning over a stubborn horse that's as fast as the wind, one thing's for sure: Jacky's new life in Boston is just as exciting as her old one on the high seas.
Author Notes
L. A. Meyer was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1942. He received a B.A. in English literature from the University of Florida in Gainesville and soon after, enlisted in the U.S. Navy for a four year-stint. He worked as a social worker and then published two picture books, The Gypsy Bears and The Clean Air and Peaceful Contentment Dirigible Airline, before receiving his M.F.A. in painting from Boston University in 1973.
He taught high school art in Massachusetts for seven years and then left to open art and design shops. His first novel for young readers, Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy, was published in 2002. It became the first book in the Bloody Jack Adventure series. He died from Hodgkin's lymphoma on July 29, 2014 at the age of 71.
(Bowker Author Biography)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-The audacious Jacky Faber is back in L.A. Meyer's fabulous sequel (2004) to Bloody Jack (2002, both Harcourt). In the first novel, Jacky cut her hair, put on boy's clothes, changed her name to Jack, and signed on as a ship's boy aboard a Royal Navy frigate. Jacky thrived at sea and attained the rank of a midshipman. When the Navy discovered she was a girl, they dumped her, albeit with great pomp and ceremony, in Boston. This sequel begins as Jacky leaves behind her beloved Jaimy, disembarks in Boston-in a dress-to attend The Lawson Peabody School for Fine Young Girls. Jacky soon discovers that fighting pirates was a piece of cake compared to circumnavigating the complexities of becoming a lady. She fails at embroidery, but excels at sneaking out of school and playing her pennywhistle in taverns. Jacky falls short in French, but ably learns to ride astride a glorious stallion and compete in a horse race. Her table manners are deplorable, but her sleuthing abilities are top notch when she uncovers the murder of a former classmate. Finally giving up, Jacky abandons her school, in flames (don't ask), and jumps aboard a whaling ship to make her way back to Jaimy. Katherine Kellgren delivers a stunning performance with a myriad of amazing voices. Her cockney Jacky is just right and makes the story more accessible to listeners who may struggle with the Brit-speak. Loyal, clever, sassy, impudent, and just a little bit naughty, Jacky is a protagonist to admire. Simply delightful.-Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The heroine who masqueraded as the title character in Bloody Jack, which PW called "a rattling good read," returns in the engaging Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady by L. A. Meyer. Jacky, now enrolled in the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston, tussles with her well-to-do schoolmates, gets arrested for singing and dancing at the harbor and helps solve a murder mystery. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School, High School) When readers last saw Jacky Faber (Bloody Jack, rev. 1/03), she was ending her brief career as a ship's mate, saying goodbye to her true love Jaimy, and heading off for refining and polishing at Mistress Pimm's school in Boston. While some of the hoity-toity girls ridicule her, one becomes her friend, and together they bring down a murderer and save a family's fortune. Spunky Jacky racks up a few side adventures of her own that take her to the darker streets of early-nineteenth-century Boston, acquainting her with those who live below stairs and in pubs and brothels. One sorrow clouds her happiness: guardians and parents, respectively, plot to keep her and Jaimy apart. Jacky develops a social veneer that reveals itself through her increasingly polished language but doesn't obliterate her individualism. The plot never falters, and Jacky's many talents (a Jacky-of-all-trades, she can sing, dance, jockey, embroider, and climb a ship's mast) create a Stratemeyer-like heroine, albeit one who inhabits a far superior literary world than did Tom Swift and Nancy Drew before her. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The sequel to Bloody Jack (2002) is a rousing adventure, short on character development but perfectly delicious in all other ways. Our heroine, London-born Jacky Faber, having been found out as a girl, must leave her ship and the boy she loves, taking her pirate money for tuition at an exclusive girls' school in Boston, 1802. Cheeky as all get out, Jacky sings (lyrics of famous ballads and chanteys throughout), plays the penny whistle and concertina, learns to paint miniatures on ivory, ride a horse, and curtsey. Jacky gets busted to the servants' quarters, but is raised up again, finds herself a good lawyer, and writes many letters to her true love Jaimy. He writes back, and various events are conveyed, but not to their recipients. Jacky wins a horse race, escapes from a predatory preacher, even saves her starchy headmistress from the thrilling end-of-the-story conflagration. But she doesn't reach Jaimy, and the end finds her aboard a whaler, headed toward England. Breathless readers don't have to know the first installment to thrill to this one, but they will long for the next. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-9. Taking up where the original story of Bloody Jack (2002) left off, this early-nineteenth-century adventure story begins with Jacky Faber, no longer disguised as a ship's boy, leaving the Dolphin and going to her new home, the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls. There Mistress Pimm takes on the formidable task of transforming the indomitable scamp into a young lady. Good-hearted but spirited and unconventional, Jacky tries to learn, but finds it impossible to conform to an ideal of womanhood that does not include lewd exhibitions of singing and dancing, dressing in men's clothing, consorting with drunkards and prostitutes, and using language as salty as any sailor's. Though her boldness puts her in situations dangerous to her safety and her virtue, Jacky manages to bring the complete downfall of a detestable preacher and good fortune to her many friends. The characterizations are undeniably broad, but one of the riches of this entertaining novel is the large, Dickensian cast of colorfully named figures--e.g., the enigmatic theatrical duo Mr. Fennel and Mr. Bean. Happily, the book's conclusion promises a sequel with Jacky at sea once more. --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2004 Booklist
