The Night Ship follows the maiden voyage of the real life Dutch Batavia ship as it sailed from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies. I had never heard of the Batavia before and really enjoyed learning about her voyage.
Without spoiling the story, little is actually known of the daily routines of the people who were sailing in the ship. There is particularly little know of the events of Beacon Island.
Jess Kidd has really cleverly created the character of Mayken and you see the voyage of the Batavia through her eyes
There is a second story about a boy called Gil which is set in 1989, over 300 hundred years after Batavia sailed. Each chapter is alternately Mayken and Gil, making it easy to keep track of the story.
However, I found that there was very little interaction of the stories between Mayken & Gil. I found I skipped through the chapters with Gil as I found them very boring compare to Mayken's.
If you removed the sections with Gil and just has Mayken's story it would be a much better book and move at a more even pace.
Without spoiling the story, little is actually known of the daily routines of the people who were sailing in the ship. There is particularly little know of the events of Beacon Island.
Jess Kidd has really cleverly created the character of Mayken and you see the voyage of the Batavia through her eyes
There is a second story about a boy called Gil which is set in 1989, over 300 hundred years after Batavia sailed. Each chapter is alternately Mayken and Gil, making it easy to keep track of the story.
However, I found that there was very little interaction of the stories between Mayken & Gil. I found I skipped through the chapters with Gil as I found them very boring compare to Mayken's.
If you removed the sections with Gil and just has Mayken's story it would be a much better book and move at a more even pace.