I loved this charming adventure of the California Gold Rush through the eyes of 12 year old Jack and his butler. They travel the ocean, solve puzzles and use their wits, kindness, an intelligence to get through sticky and dangerous situations. A very fun read with lots of lively history. ( )

The year is 1849. Young Jack Flagg sets out to recoup his Aunt Arabella's fortune on a ship bound from Boston to the California gold fields. Thus begin the wild, swashbuckling adventures of a determined 12-year-old and his intrepid butler.

Month of January 2022: Young Reader’s Classics

READING LEVEL: 5.1 AR POINTS: 6.0
(8-12 years, grade 3-7)
Originally published in 1963. Gave to my Hodge grandsons.

Super cute adventure novel, especially for young boys, that takes place in 1949 during the California gold rush. Jack and his two sisters live with their Aunt Arabella on account of their parent’s dying of cholera. She’s about to lose the house, so Jack decides to help. He heads out, with the family butler, Praiseworthy, on the vessel, Lady Wilma, to San Francisco by way of the treacherous Cape Horn.

Half the book is about Jack and Praiseworthy’s adventures out at sea. The other half is on their gold digging adventures as they earn the respect of the other miners and earn the nicknames Jamoka Jack and Bullwhip.

A very nostalgic read because it reads just as if you were watching one of those great oldie, but goodie, Disney movies back in the day.

BOOK-TO-MOVIE

“The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin” (1967), an American Western comedy produced by Disney, starring Roddy McDowall, Susanne Pleshette, Hermiine Baddeley and Karl Malden ( )

By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman (1988)

children's historical fiction (gold rush adventure with some fist-fighting and pistol brandishing, boat travel). An unlikely story (butler travels with runaway boy to make fortune together to bring back to boy's financially-strained aunt) but a nice adventure with a full audio cast. ( )