Ghost Canoe

by Will Hobbs Narrated by Boyd Gaines

Overview

"An exciting adventure...a winning tale that artfully combines history, nature and suspense." -School Library Journal


A DANGEROUS MYSTERY
AND A BOY DETERMINED TO SOLVE IT...
After a sailing ship breaks up on the rocks off Washington's storm-tossed Cape Flattery, Nathan MacAllister, the fourteen-year-old son of the lighthouse keeper, refuses to believe the authorities, who say there were no survivors. Unexplained footprints on a desolate beach, a theft at the trading post, and glimpses of a wild "hairy man" convince Nathan that someone is hiding in the remote sea caves along the coast. With his new friend, Lighthouse George, a fisherman from the famed Makah whaling tribe, Nathan paddles the fierce waters of the Pacific-fishing, hunting seals, searching for clues. Alone in the forest, Nathan discovers a ghostly canoe and a skeleton that may unlock this mystery of ancient treasure, betrayal...and murder.

Editorial Reviews

Signal

Exciting mystery/adventure, deeply rooted in respect for Native American heritage.

American Bookseller

A riveting adventure ...

SIGNAL

Exciting mystery/adventure, deeply rooted in respect for Native American heritage.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this intense adaptation of Hobbs's suspenseful novel set in 1874 Washington state, 14-year-old Nathan MacAllister uncovers a chilling murder-mystery involving a greedy sailor and members of a local Native American tribe. As the son of a lighthouse keeper, Nathan is accustomed to the storm-ravaged desolate life on Cape Flattery. He has adopted the ways of the Makah Indians as well, learning to fish and hunt under the tutelage of a family friend (and Makah) Lighthouse George. But when a clipper ship sinks just off the cape, Nathan wonders if it's true that there were no survivors. After all, who could be spying on the Makah tribe and making strange footprints on the beach? The answers to these and other questions become all too clear when the mysterious "hairy man" John Kane arrives in the village, eager to find and peddle Makah artifacts--the same artifacts Nathan has already discovered in a "ghost canoe," a sacred form of Makah burial. Gaines proves a versatile performer, gamely taking on roles of all ages, backgrounds and genders. Ages 8-up. (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9With characteristic skill, Hobbs blends together a number of elements to create an exciting adventure set in 1874 on Washington's rugged Olympic peninsula. Nathan, 14, tries to unravel the mystery of a shipwreck and the captain's murder. With Lighthouse George, a Makah fisherman, the boy paddles canoes on delivery runs to the damp, inhospitable island of Tatoosh, where his father is the lighthouse keeper, and on hunting expeditions for whales and seals. Curious about footprints found on a desolate beach near the shipwreck where all were supposedly lost, the boy explores the peninsula and encounters a shadowy figure brandishing a knife in a dark cave, a nervous local trader burying a small metal box, and a burial "ghost" canoe mounted high among tree branches facing the sea. When the boy's father receives a letter referring to a lost treasure map and the likelihood of foul play in the shipwreck, Nathan begins to piece together the truth. In a climactic scene, he is threatened by the murderer, and Lighthouse George and an eccentric village outcast come to Nathan's rescue. A gallery of good, evil, eccentric, and misunderstood characters teaches him the meaning of friendship and enriches his appreciation of another culture. Dramatic, vivid descriptions of the Pacific landscape and Makah lifestyle and customs create a rich backdrop for Nathan's adventures and discoveries. A winning tale that artfully combines history, nature, and suspense.Gerry Larson, Durham Magnet Center, Durham, NC

Kirkus Reviews

Hobbs (Beardream, p. 462, etc.), setting his novel on Washington's Cape Flattery in 1874, presents a hero who not only has the intelligence to solve a murder, but the resources to help bring a killer to justice.

Nathan MacAllister, 14, has a fairly exciting life as a de facto assistant lighthouse keeper to his father, retired Captain Zachary MacAllister. When not tending the lighthouse, Nathan looks after his sick mother and fishes with a friend, Lighthouse George, a Makah fisherman. When a sailing ship, the L.S. Burnaby, crashes on the rocks near the lighthouse, and the captain's murdered body washes ashore, Nathan becomes an amateur sleuth. At first, he believes (as the Makah do) that an evil spirit is at work, but certain events—his neighbor, Captain Bim, burying a treasure box at night, the discovery of a skeleton in a Makah canoe hanging in the treetops, the appearance of a charismatic yet strange new shopkeeper, Mr. Kane—lead Nathan to sensibly conclude that the mystery has more to do with real people than ghosts. While the mystery is compelling, it is Hobbs's deft weaving of Makah culture into the story that resonates, from their harvesting of wood without cutting any trees to their generosity to friends. A robust adventure in an intriguing setting.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169355758
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/05/2000
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Fog enclosed the island until it was hidden from view. Nathan and his father spent most of the day cleaning the lens, and they kept the foghorn going. Midafternoon, Nathan's mother called them in for an early supper.

Every so often there was a slight break in the fog and the misty shape of Cape Flattery appeared through the south-facing window. Every twenty Seven seconds came the three-second resounding blast of the foghorn. Nathan had never felt so weary in his life.

As his mother was gazing toward the mainland through one of the brief openings in the fog, her face suddenly registered the utmost astonishment. She pointed toward Cape Flattery- Nathan and his father were shocked by the sight of a three-masted square rigger under full sail emerging from the mist where a ship never, ever should have been- Like an apparition, the lumber schooner was sailing through the narrow gap between Tatoosh and the mainland.

"They've missed the Strait!" Nathan's mother cried. Nathan and his father went running outside, as fast as they could, toward the edge of the cliff.

They could see the men on the ship, even read the name, the L. S. Burnaby, on the side. The sailors were so close Nathan could make out the men's faces, shocked beyond amazement to discover their situation. Paralyzed by the sight of Tatoosh's looming cliffs, the crew stood unmoving on the deck like actors in a tragic drama, staring up at Nathan and his father. A dense bank of fog was engulfing the ship from behind. Only the helmsman was in motion as, realizing their situation, he spun the ship's wheel away from Tatoosh.

Nathan knew instantly what the result of the correction would be. The helmsman was now steering the Burnabydirectly toward the barely submerged reef known as Jones Rock, invisible in the fog ahead

"Jones Rock!" Nathan exclaimed under his breath His father had realized the same thing and already was waving the helmsman to steer close under Tatoosh's cliffs, where the schooner would find deep water.

The helmsman saw and understood the waving of the lighthouse keeper's arms. He responded with a frantic reversal of the ship's wheel. Like a scattered flock of sheep, the crewmen were now scrambling this way and that. Moments later, the square-rigger disappeared in the fog, engulfed like a ghost ship.

"What will happen to it?" Nathan asked anxiously, his eyes fixed on the spot where the ship had disappeared.

His father's ruddy features, carved by the sea over decades as he'd stood at the helm of sailing ships, were so grave they reminded Nathan of a minister he'd once seen presiding at a funeral. "God help them," Zachary MacAllister whispered.

Nathan and his parents prayed that night for those sailors, not knowing what had become of them, fearing the worst.

During the night, Nathan and his father again took turns at the watch in the lighthouse. The fog dissolved during Nathan's watch, and the stars came out.

With daylight came no hint that a ship had passed between Tatoosh and the mainland. Filled with relief, Nathan hurried to tell his parents. "They cleared Jones Rock," he said, bursting into the kitchen. "They must have passed safely into the Strait. They're probably in Port Townsend by now."

"It's a miracle," Nathan's mother declared.

His father nodded, then added, The captain shouldn't have needed a miracle. He should have heard the foghorn."

The next afternoon Nathan and his parents finally learned the sailors' fate from Lighthouse George, the Makah fisherman who delivered their mail once a week in his dugout canoe. The men hadn't been lucky, after all. Lighthouse George said that the ship had foundered in the fog, breaking up on the Chibahdehl Rocks, to the east of Tatoosh, just a few miles past Jones Rock.

The Makahs had found the bodies of fourteen drowned men. And one set of footprints on the shore. Ghost Canoe. Copyright © by Will Hobbs. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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