Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: Quite a lot of swearing and some references to deity. Vulgar and mildly offensive phrases (piss off, sod off). Terms referring to sexual relations between boys and men. The schoolmaster teaches the ship’s boys vocabulary words each day and one day the words are, “buggery, sodomy and pederasty.” He teaches these words to “protect them from the sin.” The reader does not receive the definitions of these words.

Violence: 13 year-old girl is hanged in the gallows for stealing. She is not heavy enough to break her neck so the executioner has to jump on her shoulders. Charlie, the leader of Mary’s gang, is killed. Jack is beaten up several times. She is hit and kicked, her ribs are broken and her teeth nearly knocked out. The HMS Dolphin attacks a pirate ship, there are dead bodies and blood everywhere. Jack shoots a pirate in the chest with a pistol and he dies. Sailors and pirates die. Jack stabs a sailor while he is trying to rape  her. He staggers and falls over the side of the ship to his death. Jack is hanged, but is rescued before she dies. The pirate captain’s head is cut off to be displayed on the British ship.

Sexual Content: Irish girls took Spanish sailors “to their hearts and their beds.” The ship’s priest explains “sins of the flesh” in order to protect the boys from what the men on the ship could do to them. No details are given, but the subject is raised. Later Jack asks him to explain “the way of a lad with a maid.” He won’t explain and he tells the boys to go to “the tarts for their lessons in lechery and get the pox.” When the ship comes into port, brothels and loose women are mentioned. The other sailors think that Jack has gone into a brothel and they tease him. In reality Jack went into the brothel to ask a woman to give her a female education and explain the ways of a man with a maid. Innuendo about men being with boys on the ship.  Jack, who is actually a girl pretending to be a boy, catches the eye of a lecherous  sailor. He watches her and slaps her bottom. He comes up behind her, pins her at the ship’s railing and “grinds against” her. He eventually catches her alone and forcibly lays on top of her, he kisses her then pulls down her pants and touches her, at which time he discovers her real gender. This is when she stabs him. Once Jamie knows that Jack is a girl, they kiss and wrap arms and legs around each other. They sleep together in the same hammock. Jamie wants to do more with her, but she holds him off.

Adult Themes: Mary is left an orphan and has to fend for herself in a gang of orphans. The orphans steal to stay alive. Jack begins to mature and starts menstruating. She doesn’t know why she is bleeding and thinks she is dying. When they go ashore the ship’s boys get drunk, get tattoos and pierce their ears. Homosexuality. Sexual abuse.

Synopsis

Mary Faber is left an orphan when her parents and sister die of the plague. With no one to care for her, she joins a gang of orphans and learns to steal and beg to survive.  When Charlie, the leader of their gang, is killed, Mary takes the opportunity to start a new life. She dons Charlie’s clothes and takes to the seas as Jack Faber,  ship’s boy on the HMS Dolphin. Maintaining “The Deception” on board the ship provides many challenges, but she is able to conceal her identity and endears herself to the other boys and many of the sailors. The HMS Dolphin is looking for pirates and when they find them, Jacky is as brave as any of the boys, and braver than some of the men.

This is a difficult book to rate because the story is engaging, but there is enough inappropriate content that I can’t recommend it. As I was reading the book, it was obvious that an encounter with Sloat, the sailor who is taken with Jack, was imminent. I was so nervous about it happening that I couldn’t enjoy the story until it was resolved. Publishers Weekly recommends the book for children 12 and up. I have a 12 year old and I would strongly discourage her from reading this book. I am listing Bloody Jack as appropriate for high school age, but I don’t recommend it.

©2009 The Literate Mother