Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Shiver me timbers!

This is THE PENULTIMATE pirate adventure, me mateys!

Never mind that it's written for a 12-year-old or that practically every aspect of this adventure has percolated through our collective zeitgeist.

Here it is! The YA to eat ALL YA. Or the tale to drown your young one in so much rum that he or she expires by the bloody knife he or she didn't see while inebriated or by the blasted drink itself.

Pure escapism? No. There's a bit of a heart in here and mercy is not the least of it. But even mercy has a very keen edge.

Pirates, mutiny, dastardly villainy, greed, and democratically elected captaincies.

Wait... WHAT?

*slips quietly out the back door*

Where's Sparrow?


Even so, this was quite a fun diversion. :)

I remember reading this when I was young (probably 10) and reading it again resonated like a true adventure story should. It took me back to when I was young and first became an avid reader. The English is a little difficult to follow. Pirate-speech almost like a distinct language will do that to you, but the plot is great. Language is all about following the idiomatic expressions and unless there is a shared culture some of the idioms will fall flat. The story will not appear original, because it’s been borrowed from so liberally. (Practically EVERY pirate movie has swiped elements of this particular story.) Still great with scary dangerous parts. The characters are larger than life and might be read as caricatures by a modern audience. (Very Pirates of the Caribbean for instance.) I loved it back then. Love it even more now. Truly a classic because it meets the three criteria of longevity (more than 50 years of greatness), exceptional (5 stars, duh), and paradigm creating (meaning it is the standard emulated and flat out copied.)

I last read Treasure Island as a child. So glad I reread it. It’s a wonderful pirate adventure story. Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver, Blind Pew, the squire, Ben Gunn and the others.

The eccentric angry Captain staying at Jim’s fathers inn the Admiral Benbow and being discovered by his estranged companions. The black spot. The discovery of the treasure map and the voyage out. Then the betrayal, fights, Jim always in the thick of it either in an Apple barrel, up a mast or wondering what Silver will do next. He swaps sides more than a liberal democrat on speed.

Treasure Island is a true classic and I plan to watch the 1934 black and white movie on YouTube in the near future.

"

Fifteen men after a dead man’s chest
Yo, ho, and a bucket of blood

What do pirates do? They drink one bottle of rum after another. They kill each other and anyone else they desire. They are also greedy and will steal the shirt off your back and the gold in your teeth.
They are vulgar in speech but forget the sex, because they are too busy drinking themselves to death. And they say that this is a children’s book.

I tried reading this book way over two years ago, and while I loved the beginning chapters, those at the Admiral Benbow Inn. After Jim and company arrived at Treasure Island and there was a mutiny, I put the book down. I hate battle scenes. Yet, I never forgot the scenes at the
Inn, which I thought contained the best writing of any author. I wanted to read it again, because it kept nagging at me to do so. This time I decided that I had to finish the book, battles and all.

It began with an old captain dragging a chest into the Admiral Benbow Inn, placing it in his room and hiding its key. The Inn was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins with the help of their young son, Jim. The captain asked Jim to keep an eye out for a one-legged man and to let him know immediately if he sees him. Next, the captain is creeping around, trying to see who is at the Inn at any given time. And he is eating large amounts of food and drinking rum, enough to fill a large barrel. You know, you have seen them at wineries, only those are not filled with rum. And what is it with rum? I thought that it was only good for making Rum Balls, those rum cookies that they make at Christmas, the ones that can also make you drunk. Or, perhaps, rum is used in fruit cakes to make them taste great. Of course, you add the rum after the cake is baked, and of course, and you do not bake the cookies at all.

This time around, I am not reading this book, instead I am listening to it on my BARD app, and the narrator is great. His name is Erik Sandvold and not the same narrator as who you get on Audible. on. He sounds like a pirate when speaking those parts, I should say, what people imagine pirates to sound like. I found myself almost as fascinated with his different voices as I did with the book. Not really. And what is more, I could see the Inn, the island, and the skeletons, even the buckets of blood. I could even almost hear the captain singing “Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest, Yo, ho, and a bottle of rum.” Well, now that I think of it, it was sung aloud by the narrator. Last of all, I even saw the ships shelves with bottles of rum and wanted to grab a few to make Rum Balls.

So now, you know that I have read the battles on the island, and I learned its secrets, but if I tell you anymore, you will have the story spoiled for you. So, I will leave you with this recipe:

No Bake Rum Balls

1 cup finely crushed vanilla wafers
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup, rum, bourbon or brandy
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Mix all in a bowl and shape into balls. Store in an air tight container. Makes 3 dozen.

Original rating: 3 stars
Updated rating: 3 stars (yup, no change)

I originally read this book when I was 12 or 13. I wrote a book report on it for a middle school English class. I also remember that I read it while on Spring Break in Florida - so it was kind of cool to read this while in a somewhat tropical climate. I remember that I liked it okay, but when you are reading it for school, you sometimes cannot trust a lukewarm memory of a book.

In this case, my memory was spot on!

I can describe this book two ways:

- An okay seafaring/pirate tale that will probably be loved by hardcore pirate fans and people who like nautical tales
- Tedious

When I mentioned it was tedious to my wife, she asked if it was repetitive. But, repetitive is not quite right. More like each scene/part of the book is drawn out to the point I was relieved when it moved on. Kind of surprising as it is not all that long of a book. If you are anything like me you will spend a lot of your time thinking "Get on with it!"

One interesting "Ah-ha" moment I had: As you may know, this book features Long John Silver. In my mind, and probably most peoples' minds, he is a famous pirate from a famous pirate book and there is a seafood chain named after him. The ah-ha, and maybe this was not intentional, is that his cover in the book is that he is a cook on the boat. So, naming a restaurant after him makes perfect sense!

Treasure Island is one of those stories that is so famous you already know it prior to reading the book.

It’s the tale of teenage Jim Hawkins who discovers a treasure map and sets sail as a cabin boy along with Long John Silver and the rest of the crew as they embark on their quest for treasure.

The book is predominantly narrated by the teen which is the perfect entry point for younger readers.
I liked that the story was split over five parts, a great way to dip in and out of the story over multiple days.

The story can be a little slow by today’s standards, but it’s a testament to how many elements introduced my Stevenson have become common tropes in all pirate stories!

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