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    Jack Plank Tells Tales
    Unavailable
    Jack Plank Tells Tales
    Unavailable
    Jack Plank Tells Tales
    Audiobook2 hours

    Jack Plank Tells Tales

    Written by Natalie Babbitt

    Narrated by John H. Mayer

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Yes, Jack Plank started out to be a pirate. His shipmates all liked him, and their ship, the Avarice, was certainly very beautiful. But after a while it was clear that he wasn't much good at plundering. He just didn't have the knack for it. So what to do?

    Jack did the only thing he could do-he went ashore to look for another line of work. The town was called Salt-wash, on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, and he had a lot of helpful advice from the people in Mrs. DelFresno's boardinghouse. Somehow, though, each career he looked into seemed to have something wrong with it. And every night at dinner in the boardinghouse he tried to explain why. For who would want to work where there might be a troll, or the danger of getting a crab caught in your beard? Or what about a music-loving crocodile? There were other things, too, that ran against every suggestion and took the wind out of his sails. 

    At last, Jack decided he wouldn't be good at anything onshore and would have to go back to sea, pirate or not. But sometimes, as you probably know already, things work out very nicely when you least expect it.


    From the Compact Disc edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 12, 2008
    ISBN9780739364079
    Unavailable
    Jack Plank Tells Tales
    Author

    Natalie Babbitt

    Artist and writer Natalie Babbitt (1932–2016) is the award-winning author of the modern classic Tuck Everlasting and many other brilliantly original books for young people. As the mother of three small children, she began her career in 1966 by illustrating The Forty-Ninth Magician, written by her husband, Samuel Babbitt. She soon tried her own hand at writing, publishing two picture books in verse. Her first novel, The Search for Delicious, was published in 1969 and established her reputation for creating magical tales with profound meaning. Kneeknock Rise earned Babbitt a Newbery Honor in 1971, and she went on to write—and often illustrate—many more picture books, story collections, and novels. She also illustrated the five volumes in the Small Poems series by Valerie Worth. In 2002, Tuck Everlasting was adapted into a major motion picture, and in 2016 a musical version premiered on Broadway. Born and raised in Ohio, Natalie Babbitt lived her adult life in the Northeast.

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    Reviews for Jack Plank Tells Tales

    3.5/5

    35 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Jack Plank is not a very good pirate. Even though the other pirates like him, they can't afford to feed him when he doesn't do his share of plundering. They take him ashore to a small town where he takes a room in a boarding house and searches for a job.Each evening he returns to the boarding house, discouraged, because there is a reason why each job he considers is not the job for him. Jack finally does find his calling in a sweet and funny ending that will not surprise readers who have been paying attention.
    • 2/5
      It is entirely possible that this is a well-written, intelligent book for children. I really struggled to get through it. And I sense that kids wouldn't enjoy it much, either. It's the kind of book ostensibly written for kids, but more for adults.
    • 4/5
      Oh poor ole Jack Plank...he wanted so much to stay aboard The Avarice with his plundering,salty pirate buddies. But, alas, he did not have what it takes, and so, with a heavy heart he left the sea to live his life on land. He stumbled onto the town of Saltwash on the coast of the Caribbean Sea. There he meets boardinghouse proprietor, Mrs. DelFresno and her daughter, Nina. Jack rents a room from them and, bless her heart, Nina sets out to help ole Jack find employment in this lovely town. Here's how it goes: Every time Nina suggests a job, Jack finds a compelling reason to reject her thoughtful proposals. So, he will not be a:A FarmerA BakerA Fortune-TellerA FishermanA BarberA GoldsmithAn Actor norA MusicianBut, just as aboard The Avarice, Jack is loved by one and all...and stumbles upon the one profession that is perfect for him and all his new friends. In the end, Jack settles into his new career and has the best life he could have ever hoped or wished for.
    • 4/5
      Jack Plank is an unemployed pirate who needs a new job. He’s just been downsized – to use an anachronism for a tale set in 1720. It seems Jack was never too good at plundering; he was better at staying aboard and making soup. So, when the buccaneering business took a downturn, he was let go, and set ashore near the little port of Saltwash, Jamaica. There he takes a room at the widow DelFresco’s rooming house. For the next eight days he looks for work, but comes back every evening with a different tale of why he is unable to work as a farmer, baker, fortune-teller, fisherman, barber, goldsmith, actor, or musician. And all of his tales relate, not to a lack of the necessary skills for any of these trades, but to his experiences in his former line of work. And while his stories are all improbable or puzzling they are also very interesting. In the end, he does what many underemployed citizens of seaport towns do – he earns his living in the tourist trade. He becomes the resident storyteller, the attraction at the rooming house when Mrs. DelFresco serves tea.Who would have thought that pirate stories filled with trolls, mermaids, ghosts, feral children that shriek like seagulls and men that turn into octopi could be gentle and comforting tales? But by skillfully building her stories around the humans and their affections and interactions rather than their fears Babbitt has done so. She’s also illustrated the stories with drawings that perfectly match her gentle tone.