The Convicts

The Convicts is a novel written by Iain Lawrence about the adventures of a boy named Tom Tin. The book starts talking about the problems his family faces from his sister dying to a man named Mr. Goodfellow trying to ruin his family. From the beginning of the book his life starts going down the drain, his father is taken away to debtor's prison and Tom is forced to leave home to find money to get his father out of jail and to get his family back into a good home. For Tom it is a wrong place wrong time situation. He first stumble into a grave digger and then after that he is mistaken for a member of a gang in downtown London and then is charged by police for crimes he did not commit. He is then sent to a ship prison (hulk) call the Lachesis and from there he is meant to be transported to Van Diemen's Land. After being sent to the hulk he finds out the horrors of the hulk from first hand experiences and he then spends the rest of his time trying to escape from the horrors of the hulk and to find his family again.

In the book two main themes were the coming of age and trust. They fit perfectly into the book because when he is forced out into the streets to find money to save his father and family he meets people that were shift and that make bad decisions. This forces him to make right decisions and to make friends with people that he can trust and that would not lead him into trouble.

The book is written through Tom's eyes which give the affect that you are seeing what he is sees so it is like you are there at the same time. The book also takes place in the early 1800s, therefore Iain Lawrence made the characters speak in a old english style of speaking which gave an affect that made it feel like you were back in time with them.

The problems in the book relate to teenagers because at this point in our lives we have to start making decisions for are selves that will affect are life in the future forcing us to think about what we are doing so that we make the right decisions that will lead us in the right path.

If i was Iain Lawrence i do not think i would change the book in anyway because it would take way from what the book is right now. It would not be the same because every part contributes greatly to the plot. I think it is great how it is.

I would recommend this book to everyone from the age of 13 to 16 and also to anyone that like to read about how life was back in the 1800s and to people who enjoy reading about sailing adventures. It is not a hard read and it is also a fast paced book that always has something exciting around the corner.

Many rhetorical devices were use in the book but i found that pathetic fallacies were use throughout the book. The whole book is set up in a very dark and gloomy atmosphere that fits the situation and the characters that Tom reacts and spends his time with in the book and the also foreshadow that even worse events are going to happen later in the book. Another rhetorical device that were used were metaphors. All throughout out the book he talks about his fathers ways of describing situations in this sailors talk. For instance he describes a problem and how it will all turn out better in the end by talking about how stormy weather has to end sometime and that winds change directions constantly and that not every time things go your way and that no matter what happens you have to continuing pressing on.

Overall the book was amazing and i cannot wait to read The Cannibals the next book in the series.

The Buccaneers

The Buccaneers is the third and last book in the The High Seas Trilogy by Iain Lawrence. It is about a young man by the name of John Spencer who works on his fathers schooner call the Dragon that is going from London, England to Kingston, Jamaica carrying cargo. On his way there he makes a new friend named Horn who helps John and the crew through there adventure. On the adventure they encounter all sorts of things from buccaneers (pirates) to large Mosquitos. Also while he is having troubles with the buccaneers he meets an old friend Dashing Tommy Dusker. Altogether they try and bring the head buccaneer Captain Grace to England to put him behind bars, but in a fight Grace and Horn are swept over board in a storm and are never seen again. The book has a for-filling end because at the end of the book they also end off at the place were it all started where the first book in the trilogy took place in Pendennis.

A theme that took place throughout the book was trust because as they find Horn out at sea in a life boat and his mysterious chest they can't seem to decide if they can trust him because most of the men a superstitious and seem to believe that he is a Jonah. But as they keep venturing on he becomes a great friend of the crew and a very handy guy to have around.

Iain Lawrence made the book that much greater by making it so that the characters spoke in an old english way as if they were actually sailors form the 1800's. He also included tons of old fashioned sailor's talk and terms to make it feel like you were living the action and him also included the Irish and Scottish accents in words making the characters sound like they were from all around the place with all there different ways of speaking.

An issue raised in the book was decision making and how it can effect adolescent life. In the book John is face with a problem where the captain is sick so he is put in-charge of the boat and where he has to make decisions that can put the boat and the crew in harms way.

I do not believe that the author could do anything to make the boo better because i loved it the way it was written all i would like to see is another book in the trilogy to be written.

I would only recommend this book to other people that like to sail and that have a passion for it because there could be terms and parts of the boat that you would not know that might confuse you. Also people that love a good adventure would love this because of he neat place that they go to in the Indies and all the stuff they encounter.

Iain Lawrence used a lot of personification in the book when he was describing the water a a living thing for example he would say "the sea was raging and beating the port side of the boat as we sailed on," this made it easier to describe and to depict the strength of the waves and the intensity of the waves. Also he used metaphors throughout the book to describe different things to make it easier to get a visual idea about what was happening. For instance when he was describing the mosquitos on an island he wrote "The mosquitos buzzed over the island in a group that seemed like a cloud of gray smoke."

Altogether The Buccaneers was amazing and i would recommend it to all my sailing buddies and anyone that might be interested. I am also hoping for another book in the trilogy to come out because it was to good of a story to end there.

The Pearl

The Pearl is a short fictional story by Steinbeck about a man that live in a town that strives off finding pearls in the reef just off the shores of there coastal town. One day in the morning his son is stung by a scorpion and in a desperate attempt to get money he goes out to find a large pearl to get enough money to give his family a good life and to hire a doctor to save his son. While out on the water he finds what Steinbeck call the great pearl which is a pearl the size of a large stone and after he gets his son cured from the sting his life turn into a big problem where greed come into play when people are attacking him at night to get the pearl.

The theme in the novel is greed it comes into play after he finds the great pearl where everyone else in the town is trying to get the pearl from him by cheating him, braking into his home, and even attacking him at night. The pearl was slowly destroying his life, it forces him to leave his home to find safety else where and in the end to save his family he throws it back in the ocean to hopefully save his life.

The author made it so a narrator was telling the story which made it feel like you were listening to a childhood story. He also made it so the people that were speaking seemed like they were speaking poor english like people with english as there second or third language which was affective because the story took place in a non english speaking part of the world.

An issue in the book that came up was about the way you spend your money. I thought that this related to adolescence because it describes how you might spend your money after you get your first large amount of money like whether or not you have spent it properly.

To improve on the book i believe the author could have made they end a little happier because it ends with his child dying and him not making any money off the pearl because he throws it back into the ocean to make his life how it use to be.

I would recommend this book to my friends because it is short and it also keeps you wanting to read more because something important happens on each page and it also include a large range of vocabulary that would be useful for a high-school reader.

A fallacy that enhance the novel is that every man that is deserving will get his one chance a good luck. At the beginning you are made to think that it is true when he found the pearl but that luck quickly became bad luck as it slowly destroyed his life. In the book the pearl symbolizes wealth and prosperity and that everyman will do what ever it takes to get, which then after while turns into a symbol of greed and trouble as it leads this mans ordinary life down the drain.