Making Friends: Training Your Dog Positively

Making Friends: Training Your Dog Positively
Average customer rating:

Great Book

Very Generalized

The best dog training book I have ever read!

Misleading Title

Easy reading and very informative!

Making Friends: Training Your Dog Positively
Linda Colflesh
Manufacturer: Howell Book House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Care & Health | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Training | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Veterinary Medicine | Medicine | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Animal Husbandry | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Art of Raising a Puppy

Training Your Dog: The Step by Step Manual (Howell Reference Books)

Beyond Basic Dog Training

How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Training Manual for Dog Owners (Revised & Updated Edition)

How to be the Leader of the Pack...And have Your Dog Love You For It. ("How to" booklets from Dog's Best Friend)

ASIN: 0876056877

Download Description

A highly accessible training book for new and inexperienced dog owners Filled with positive, proven training techniques and a healthy dose of common sense, Making Friends shows readers how to train a dog effectively while remaining the dog's best friend. Veteran dog trainer Linda Colflesh helps readers understand dog behavior and explains in plain English how to make the training process easy, fun, and effective, from housebreaking to teaching everyday commands. Linda Colflesh (Boiling Springs, PA), a dog trainer for over 25 years, owns and runs Making Friends Dog School.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-01-15

This is a great book. I highly recomend it to any dog owner. It is a great way to help understand your dog and a great tool in training. We now refer to it as our dogs hand book!! Great read and it helped so much!

Very Generalized.......2005-11-08

I found the ifnormation in this book to be very general. It seems the tried to cram a lot of information in this book however, all the information is just a breif summary. While there were a few good tips to use in the book, I found the training advice to be way too breif. This book would have been a lot better if they would have been more detailed about the training and cut out some other information that just made the book seem cluttered and unfocused.

The best dog training book I have ever read!.......2003-11-06

Of all the dog training books I have ever read-- this one is my favorite--
it's the book I recommend most to anyone who is getting a new dog-- It is extremely well written with excellent advice, easy to follow training methods- In her book she not only teaches owners how to train their dog -- but how to understand how your dog thinks and learns, and why dogs do the things they do. I followed her instructions for teaching my puppy to sit, stay, and also house training and it made training my puppy easy and fun for the both of us. On top of all that- the book is full of entertaining stories about people and their dogs (so its fun reading her book). I can't say enough good things about her book. Anyone who has a dog should read it! (by the way: another person on this site wrote a review of linda's book and said it had typical advice about choke train methods- who ever wrote that must be confusing Making Friends with another book- because Linda Colflesh's book argues against choke chain methods of training- so someone should take that review off the site- the person who wrote it didnt read the book.

Misleading Title.......2002-07-18

This seems in general a very sensibly written dog training book. The commands given are pretty standard, and the instructions are clear and logical. My only real gripe is that the title implies positive training, which this is not. This book teaches very traditional training, with leash corrections and other such, not the positive training method espoused by Karen Pryor (Don't Shoot the Dog). The author does place a welcome emphasis on not punishing your dog for what he doesn't yet understand, and on praising and rewarding good behavior, but positive training is a method, not an attitude. Adding more praise to traditional training gives you a kinder gentler traditional training, not positive training.

That said, if you're more comfortable with traditional methods than with click and treat, this is a good book to work from.

Easy reading and very informative!.......1999-02-08

Hi Linda! This is so ironic, I recently purchased a White Alaskan Eskimo and I borrowed your book from a friend of mine not knowing that you were the author. Well I read it and I think it is going to be quite helpful while raising this little monster. You should see him, I could not resist. Well, again the book was and is super! Won't bore you. Drop me a line at Taurkus@aol.com. That would be nice. G-

Amazon.com

No matter what the actual temperature may be, several pages into Eiger Dreams you will begin to shiver. Halfway through you will acquire a new appreciation for your fingers, toes, and the fact that you still have a nose. And by the end of this collection, you'll define some commonly used phrases in an entirely different way. The understated "catch some air" and the whimsical "log some flight time" are climbers' euphemisms for falling, while "crater" refers to what happens when you log some flight time all the way to the ground. "Summiting," the term for reaching the top of a mountain, seems almost colorless in comparison. The various heroes, risk-takers, incompetents, and individualists Krakauer captures are more than colorful, whether they summit or not. The author is more interested in exploring the addiction of risk--the intensity of effort--than mere triumph. There's the mythical minimalist climber, John Gill, whose fame "rests entirely on assents less than thirty feet high," and the Burgess brothers--freewheeling, free-floating English twins who seem to make all the right decisions when it counts, and hence most often fail to reach the top. Of course, they are alive. Over these and other talented climbers hangs a malignant, endlessly creative nature--its foehn winds can make people crazy and its avalanches do far worse. Eiger Dreams is an adrenaline fest for the weary, an overdue examination of a stylish, brave subculture. As one of the heroes Krakauer outlines says of his occupation, "It's sort of like having fun, only different."

Book Description

No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant victories and hardships more brilliantly than Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's notorious Devils Thumb.

In Pakistan, the fearsome K2 kills thirteen of the world's most experienced mountain climbers in one horrific summer. In Valdez, Alaska, two men scale a frozen waterfall over a four-hundred-foot drop. In France, a hip international crowd of rock climbers, bungee jumpers, and paragliders figure out new ways to risk their lives on the towering peaks of Mont Blanc. Why do they do it? How do they do it? In this extraordinary book, Krakauer presents an unusual fraternity of daredevils, athletes, and misfits stretching the limits of the possible.

From the paranoid confines of a snowbound tent, to the thunderous, suffocating terror of a white-out on Mount McKinley, Eiger Dreams spins tales of driven lives, sudden deaths, and incredible victories. This is a stirring, vivid book about one of the most compelling and dangerous of all human pursuits.

Customer Reviews:

Wanna get high?.......2007-10-10

In the same form as his "into Thin Air", Mr. Krakauer has brought the mountains to armchair alpinists all over the world, except through a collection of short stories of a variety of experiences, history and people. The book is educational, easy and interesting to read. The fact that the author himself is a climber adds a very real substance to the story that allows him to write intelligently on the subjects without it being unnatural, and how he can brings information to the forefront of what he is writing that he himself finds amazing.

My only problem with it is with all these places and people, photographs would have helped to enhance the stories he is telling.

For anyone into adventure, climbing, outdoors or even survival, this would be a book that should be read. Not for the lessons but more for the information and enjoyment of it.

Wonderful!.......2007-02-13

Being deathly afraid of heights, I'm in awe of anyone who'd put themselves on top of a mountain...especially more than once. I'm grateful for the vivid descriptions Krakauer gives us in this thrills and chills collection of wild adventures. He allows me to expand my horizons without leaving the safety of my couch. These tales of mountain men includes a few twists on the extreme sport. This was the first I'd heard of ice climbing. I gritted my teeth as the author described the dangerous climb up frozen waterfalls! The book also highlights some of the personalities of the men and women who scale enormous structures. I especially loved the chapter on the 'Burgess Boys'. In his final chapter, Krakauer gives us a personal glimpse into a segment of his youth as he journeys back to the early lure of the mountains after his first taste of climbing; how they shaped him and what they mean to him now. I think he best explains his inner debate with mountain climbing in the words he uses to describe his early climb up Devil's Thumb: "It taught me something about what mountains can and can't do, about the limits of dreams. I didn't recognize that at the time, of course, but I'm grateful for it now."

Chrissy K. McVay
Author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

Jon Krakauer at his best.......2006-12-14

When it comes to talking story, about the wilderness, few people have more interesting stories than serious mountaineers, more than once in this book, youll find yourself reading "I thought this is what its really like to die" more than once, in some form or another.

Jon Krakuaer has the gift of gab in spades and this is his writting at its best, in my opinion. I do not climb at all but have logged enough vicarious flight hours in Jon Krakauers books living vicariously through the many colorful characters that populate the climbing world.

My favorites parts were Eiger Dreams, Canyoneering, and On Choosing a Tentmate.

Lay-Z Boy Dreams: Ventures Among Readers and Mts........2006-08-22

Too timid (or wise!) to try mountain climbing? Look no further, because Krakauer's "Eiger Dreams" is every armchair mountaineer's dream: 12 classic climbing adventures detailing the author's assaults upon this planet's most harrowing miles of vertical rock and snow. Of these previously-printed Krakauer articles, not one failed to pull me into the excitement of moment, whether it was Jon dangling from various cliff faces the world round or merely scrambling along some forgotten canyon floor.

For matchless, pulse-pounding adventure, shadow the footsteps of Krakauer as he traverses the globe. Turn up the lights, crack out the bifocals, and let Jon do the rest. Just be careful not to fall out of your chair.

Enjoy!

ps Other great Krakauer reads: Into Thin Air, Into the Wild.

Okay but...........2006-03-19

I loved Into Thin Air by Krakauer, so I purchased several of his other books, including this one. While the stories were interesting, it lacked the depth I enjoy from a book (likely because it appears to be reprints of magazine articles). It also seems that most (if not all) of these articles are 20+ years old. For the same price as this book I would been better off with a years subscription to Adventure magazine.

EIGER DREAMS VENTURES AMONG MEN AND MOUNTAINS

Average customer rating:

EIGER DREAMS VENTURES AMONG MEN AND MOUNTAINS

Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H3ADPM

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Eiger Dreams Ventures Among Men and Mountains
Jon Krakauer
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000W94Y42

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EIGER DREAMS: VENTURES AMONG MEN AND MOUNTAINS
Jon Krakauer
Manufacturer: Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GQTUG8

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Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
Jon Krakauer
Manufacturer: Anchor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000M3QE5K

Book Description

Explore the complex heart of Havana from cathedrals to cigar shops, colonial city squares to Santería sites. Walk in the footsteps of literary legends Martí and Hemingway, immersed in the sounds of the city's infectious street music. This guide will lead you to museums, beaches, revolutionary forts and ultimately, the city's best mojito.

five neighborhood walking tours
notes on eateries from paladores to private restaurants
tips on staying in peso hotels, private rooms and (former) Mafia mansions
candid advice for US citizens
special color map section

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Lonely Planet Havana
Brendan Sainsbury
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Caribbean | Travel | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Lonely Planet | Guidebook Series | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1741040698

Book Description

Havana is a cultural powerhouse. A delightful and at times wicked set of contradictions, she is proud and boastful, unabashed and raw. Unlock the doors to the city - the Havana of delectable mojitos and proud intellectualism, of salsa and Santeria - with this comprehensive guide: cruise through Havana Vieja ona tailored walking tour, find romance along the Malecon, or simply puff knowingly on your Cohiba as you marvel at this cosmopolitan city on the verge of international stardom.

Discover Havana - dedicated Arts, Music and Architecture chapters reveal the culture, history, spirit and pathos of this Caribbean dynamo.

Find Yourself - detailed full-color maps guide you through Havana Vieja's narrow streets to her revolutionary monuments and neighboring beaches.

When Night Falls - immerse yourself in Havana's mambo rhythms or find that perfect hostel with expanded sleeping, eating and entertainment listings.

Under The Skin - comprehensive language and cultural coverage, and candid local interviews take you beyond the tourist trail.

Amazon.com

Though literature, films, and folklore have romanticized pirates as gallant seaman who hunted for treasure in exotic locales, David Cordingly, a former curator at the National Maritime Museum in England, reveals the facts behind the legends of such outlaws as Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, and Calico Jack. Even stories about buried treasure are fictitious, he says, yet still the myth remains. Though pirate captains were often sadistic villains and crews endured barbarous tortures, were constantly threatened with the possibility of death by hanging, drowning in a storm, or surviving a shipwreck on a hostile coast, pirates are still idealized. Cordingly examines why the myth of the romance of piratehood endures and why so few lived out their days in luxury on the riches they had plundered.

Book Description

"This is the most authoritative and highly literate account of these pernicious people that I have ever read." -- Patrick O'Brian

Pirates are so much a part of legend that it is easy to forget they actually existed. UNDER THE BLACK FLAG tells their story in a rollicking account of the golden age of piracy that is packed with history, anecdote, and above all adventure. Here are the true stories of such bloodthirsty legends as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, Anne Bonny, and the fearsome Mary Read. And here are rousing descriptions of what ships pirates sailed, what punishments they exacted, what they really wore, and how they flourished--or perished. From the smoky havoc of shipboard battle to the loneliness of a fugitive's life at sea, this spellbinding narrative vividly brings the brutal world of pirates to life.

Customer Reviews:

Data overload.......2007-09-18

Pirates! Everyone loves pirates, or the romanticizing image of them presented in fiction and films. Cordingly sets out to separate the facts from fiction in this book about the reality of pirates. He starts strong talking about fictional works from Dafoe, Stevenson, and Barrie then hashes on some film versions. The beginning of "Under a Black Flag" is promising but thereafter, it really begins to fall apart.

What's great about this book is, for a casual beginner student of pirate history, there's a mountain of facts and data regarding a great variety of pirates, not just the top names. Keep in mind that's just what it is, straight facts based on his research, a bit like high school history textbooks - this happened on this date, this happened here,... Etc. It gets pretty dry but there's a lot of info. Cordingly covers everything from ships, weaponry, women, trials, punishments, assaults, and areas of the map that was infested with piracy. However, the undoing of this book is that there is SO MUCH data and unfortunately a complete absence of organization of that data. There's no real cataloging or separation of topics whether it be event, people, location, or time based. Cordingly jumps back and forth through the piracy age that you really have no idea of which sea rovers were alive when or if they overlapped other well known buccaneers/privateers without creating your own timeline.

Like many other books covering this topic, you'd think Cordingly would have given the likes of Blackbeard, Kidd, Calico Jack, Henry Avery, Drake, and Morgan their own chapters in which the relevant facts are presented. He does so with a few of the above mentioned but he doesn't give the entire history of those ones within that chapter. Instead, it's spread out almost haphazardly and the author ends up continuously repeating himself. There also could have been a division of locales covering the Carribean, African coast/Indian Ocean, and China Sea piracy.

It's a real shame because based on the information factor, this book would get 5 stars, but the repetitiveness, choppy sentences, and lack of organization hamper the book so much it drops it down to only 2 stars. I still recommend the book, but be prepared to take notes and make your own timeline as you are going through it. The Appendixes are good, the locale maps are splendid, seafaring terminology helps out, but where are the pictures of the great variety of pirate flags at? So much potential but organization is the downfall of this otherwise high information text.

I want to be a pirate..........2007-07-06

..noo, I am just "Kidding". I must agree with the opinion that book is a bit "dry". However it covers probably all "big" pirate/privateer names and related stories of plundering, chasing, battles and punishments. So this work is like a small compendium of the piracy, great starter for further learning; well written and read with pleasure and interest. Inquisitive reader may go from here into more narrative and colorful books devoted to specific chosen characters like Kidd, Dumpiere, Blackbeard, Drake etc.
"Under the Black Flag" will definitely intensify your zest for extra "sailing" across plethora of other publishings.

Readable But Dry and Disorganized.......2007-06-21

I had hoped to find an interesting and thorough book on the history of piracy that is accessible to a layperson with limited knowledge of nautical history, but that doesn't simply repeat inaccurate cliches and stereotypes. I somehow doubt that this one would have even caught my attention had it not been so heavily promoted at various bookstores to cash in on the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. I'm disappointed that a book about such a lively subject is so surprisingly lifeless. Cordingly essentially presents a bunch of facts (names, dates, places and figures) without providing much detail or historical context. I realize that much information about pirates is sketchy at best, but simply providing me with the names of a pirate captain and his ship and the dates and places on which island an incident occurred does not make for interesting reading. Cordingly also seems to wander from subject to subject and often repeats himself. This makes me wonder if this book was actually a collection of essays or articles about piracy compiled into one volume. His main points seem to be that pirates are glamorized in fiction but in reality were cruel, sociopathic former Navy or merchant sailors who organized themselves into a democratic society. I appreciate his research and the points that he does make, but overall I found this to be a slow read and not terribly informative or entertaining.

They Plundered The Seas, Now They Plunder The Page.......2007-06-15

David Cordingly has compiled a wonderful stash of pirate fact and fiction with "Under The Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates." He covers the day-to-day comings and goings of pirates and those who loved and hated them. He fleshes out a number of the most famous pirates such as Henry Morgan, William Kidd, Bartholomew (Black Bart) Roberts and Edward (Blackbeard) Teach, giving some of them there own chapters. Specific campaigns created to wipe pirates from the seas are also given excellently documented attention. Cordingly also gives an editorial on the potential reasoning behind mankind's fascination with such vile and cruel men (and women) who called themselves "pyrate."

Cordingly backs up all of his findings with an extensive bibliography, five appendices, notes, and a very helpful glossary of sea terms. His writing style, while full of wonderful information and historical facts, never grows boring or drawn out. In fact, you could argue that "Under the Black Flag" reads a lot like a fictional novel. It's both educational and fun.

Fans of pirate history or those with just a passing fancy for the swashbuckler will want to read this book. I also recommend "The Pirate Hunter" by Richard Zacks. It covers with great detail the life and politically tainted execution of William Kidd. It's all delivered with a writing style that is easy to digest but still full of information.

From ship to shore, "Under the Black Flag" is worth a read.

The Best Book on Pirates.......2007-05-29

This is a really great book and one of my all-time favorites--unless you're looking for artwork. If it's illustrations you want, try Pirates: Predators of the Sea. If you read this and love it and want another great read, try If a Pirate I Must Be by Richard Saunders. It's terrific, though also no illustrations.

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Under the black flag
Kit Dalton
Manufacturer: L.J. Tolbert
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Under the Black Flag
Charles Harris
Manufacturer: Two Trails Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JMR3IG

Product Description

27 pages. Explores the "Black Flag" warfare in Kansas and Missouri where "no quarter" was the rule and prisoners, if taken, were shot.

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Under the Black Flag
Seitz Don C.
Manufacturer: Lincoln Macveagh
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UF74BI

Under the Black Flag: Exploits of the Most Notorious Pirates

Average customer rating:

Arrr, Here Be Buried Treasure

Under the Black Flag: Exploits of the Most Notorious Pirates
Don C. Seitz
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Reference | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
The History of Pirates
A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America
The Pirates Own Book: Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers
A General History of the Pyrates

ASIN: 0486421317

Book Description

Riveting account traces careers of buccaneers of many nationalities across 2 centuries and around the globe — from the West Indies to the South Seas. True stories of such notorious brigands as Captain Kidd and Edward (Blackbeard) Teach, as well as such lesser-known pirates as John Quelch, Christopher Scudamore, and Erasmus Peterson.

Customer Reviews:

Arrr, Here Be Buried Treasure.......2006-09-29

An older text on pirates unabridged or altered from the original published in 1925. Seitz provides a large number of biographies of various pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy in the late 17th and early 18th centuries as well as a number from the early 19th century. This is not a rehash of Captain Charles Johnson's book on pirates as are so many other compilations of pirate biographies. Seitz seems to have drawn much of his detail from government records including many of the crewman names recorded in the trials.

The writing style is circa 1920s but still very readable. The only picture is the front-plate of Edward Teach. The names covered include all of the favorites: Teach, Kidd, Roberts, Every, Bonnet, Bellamy, England and Davis. He also includes a number of lesser known pirates: North, Bradish, Howard, White and Evens (to name a few). Ultimately, this is a very nice read and reference, although, like so many older books on piracy it lacks an index to really shine as a reference.
P-)

Under the Black Flag: The Early Life, Adventures and Pyracies of the Famous Long John Silver Before He Lost His Leg (Oberon Modern Plays)

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Under the Black Flag: The Early Life, Adventures and Pyracies of the Famous Long John Silver Before He Lost His Leg (Oberon Modern Plays)
Simon Bent
Manufacturer: Oberon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Based on the real-life cutthroat of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and set around the historical pirate republic of Rabat, this wild tale of high seas and low politics exposes the class hatreds and religious hypocrisy of the seventeenth century. Only at sea, under a pirate flag, can the clamorous voices of republicanism, anarchy, and theocracy be heard.

Under the Black Horse Flag Annals of The

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Under the Black Horse Flag Annals of The
Isabel Anderson
Manufacturer: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UC8F2I

Under the Black horse flag; annals of the Weld family and some of its branches, by Isabel Anderson, LITT. D. (Mrs. Larz Anderson) ...

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Under the Black horse flag; annals of the Weld family and some of its branches, by Isabel Anderson, LITT. D. (Mrs. Larz Anderson) ...
Isabel (1876-1948) Anderson
Manufacturer: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H459RI

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Under the Black horse flag;: Annals of the Weld family and some of its branches,
Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Naval | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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From Jake Cohen, Age 9
An interesting book about ships and history in 1776

Under the Black Flag
Erik Christian Haugaard
Manufacturer: Roberts Rinehart Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Adventure & Thrillers | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Classics | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

General | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Historical Fiction | History & Historical Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 1879373637

Book Description

Freedom and Slavery in 18th Century life in the carribbean and South American are studied in this sea adventure story.

Customer Reviews:

From Jake Cohen, Age 9.......2000-07-01

It is about a boy, William Bernard, who gets kidnapped by Blackbeard the pirate,also known as Captain Teach of "The Queen Anne's Revenge". This is a great book if you want to have great entertainment and exciting dreams!

An interesting book about ships and history in 1776.......1997-07-26

Under the Black Flag is about a boy named William Bernard who was sent off by his father from Jamaica to England in 1716 to get his education, but on the way, the ship he was sailing on had an encounter with some pirates whose leader was Captain Teach, more commonly known as Blackbeard. William was taken prisoner by the pirates.

On the voyage, Captain Teach meets up with another pirate ship and invites its captain, Major Bonnet on board and lets someone from his crew take charge of Bonnet's boat. Major Bonnet has a son named Sam, whom he uses as a slave because Sam's mother was a black slave. Sam and Will very quickly become friends and dream about escaping together.

In the year William spends on the ship, he goes through many adventures with the pirates. William knows Captain Teach is vicious and inhuman, but he never does anything wrong to William, who he calls Princeling. William has mixed feelings about Blackbeard. He likes him, but he knows that Captain Teach is a bad man.

Finally, Captain Teach abandons William but he is rescued by Major Bonnet. Soon, William and Sam get their chance to escape. Bonnet has captured a small boat called a cutter, and one night, the two boys sneak away taking the cutter.

Using their navigational skills, Sam, William, and their new guest Costanza (who they rescue from a shipwrecked pirate ship) make it home to Jamaica.

The book was interesting, and there's a lot to learn from it about ships and history. I think it's a bit advanced for the average fifth grader and I recommend it for sixth graders and up. There was a pretty hard vocabulary and it would be hard to understand without an adult to explain some things.

Eli Schulman age 10

Palo Alto, California

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