Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 07/01/2004 Gr 8 Up-In this sequel to Bloody Jack (Harcourt, 2002), Meyer continues the adventures of the wild and wanton Jacky, who sailed aboard HMS Dolphin as a crewmember until it was discovered that he was really a girl. Here, she must leave her true love, Jaimy, when she is put ashore in Boston for a new start at an elite girls' school. She describes her snobbish classmates and the failed attempts of the headmistress to make a lady out of her. A natural show-off, Jacky loves to play her pennywhistle and dance on the streets. When she is arrested and jailed for showing some knee, she is demoted to serving girl. She hooks up with a drunken violin player to perform in taverns to earn money to get back to England and her Jaimy. With her propensity for plunging headfirst into trouble, the irrepressible Jacky rolls quickly from one adventure to another. As the story ends, she signs onto a whaler bound for England, leaving an opening for a third volume. Meyer does an excellent job of conveying life in Boston in 1803, particularly the rights, or lack thereof, of women. Jacky's headstrong certainty that she's in control and her cocky first-person account make her a memorable heroine. The narrative is full of lecherous men, and Jacky herself is free in her ways. This fact and the sometimes-strong language make this book more appropriate for older readers. Sure to please fans of the first title, this adventure-packed historical novel also stands on its own.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2004 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2004 In light of her triumphant, if brief, career in the British Navy (Bloody Jack, BCCB 12/02), Jacky has reason to resent being deprived of her hard-won midshipman status (due to the trifling matter of gender) and marooned in Boston's Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls. Jacky is game to undertake any course of education that could elevate her to the more genteel rank of her beloved Jaimy, though, and she makes notable progress in music (delighting the music master with salty chanties), French (she did fight against Napoleon's forces, after all), and equestrian skills (no horse will get the better of Jacky Faber). Social skills are quite a different matter; soon she's arrested for lewd public behavior and "busted back" to work as a maid. The demotion is a blessing in disguise, since now she can sneak away to sing in the bars and earn money to buy passage home to England and be reunited with her love. Meyer has obviously been inspired with a trove of possible adventures for his fetching heroine and seems loathe to let a single one go to waste. One would expect that shifting scrappy Jacky from deck to desk should provide ample scope for a sequel, but relatively little happens within the school setting itself. Instead, Jacky flits her ways through a disjointed set of misadventures ranging from winning a horse race (she masquerades as a jockey) to resisting attempts by a deranged descendant of Cotton Mather to claim her as legal ward. And, in sad news for readers of a romantic turn, the exchange of misdirected letters between Jacky and Jaimy is but cool compensation for the steam they once generated in their shipboard hammock. The adventure, however, is not over yet, and fans can hope for better days ahead with Jacky aboard a whaler. - Copyright 2004 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 05/15/2004 *Starred Review* Taking up where the original story of Bloody Jack (2002) left off, this early-nineteenth-century adventure story begins with Jacky Faber, no longer disguised as a ship's boy, leaving the Dolphin and going to her new home, the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls. There Mistress Pimm takes on the formidable task of transforming the indomitable scamp into a young lady. Good-hearted but spirited and unconventional, Jacky tries to learn, but finds it impossible to conform to an ideal of womanhood that does not include lewd exhibitions of singing and dancing, dressing in men's clothing, consorting with drunkards and prostitutes, and using language as salty as any sailor's. Though her boldness puts her in situations dangerous to her safety and her virtue, Jacky manages to bring the complete downfall of a detestable preacher and good fortune to her many friends. The characterizations are undeniably broad, but one of the riches of this entertaining novel is the large, Dickensian cast of colorfully named figures--e.g., the enigmatic theatrical duo Mr. Fennel and Mr. Bean. Happily, the book's conclusion promises a sequel with Jacky at sea once more. - Copyright 2004 Booklist.

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