Books in Junior Books series

Copyright 1960, hardcover, ex-library, 96 pages, with b/w illustrations throughout, a rare early edition. SUBJECT: Born in Northern England in the eighteenth century, James Cook, one of nine children, learned the love of the sea. As a young boy he shipped out, and in 1767 was commissioned to explore the unknown waters of the Pacific. Not only are the nautical achievements of Captain Cook stressed, but his innovations in ship conditions --the humane treatment of his crew and the careful attention given to shipboard diet. Stressed, too, is the concern for the natives encountered and who finally dealt Cook his death blow." CONDITION: Library cardholder/stamps/notations inside with sticker taped to lower spine. Binding is secure.

A facile novel which expounds its emotional problems in terms that are too simple for the depth they imply, this takes poor but upstanding Leeann Storm on her first resolute and successful steps away from home. Leaving the Junction, she ascends to the estate beyond the high wall to be governess for Mrs. Kingsley's two little girls and part time secretary for the grown son Dirk, a would-be poet. But sinister motifs overlay the new relationships. Dirk is a sickly, hostile young man, and his mother's son by a former marriage. Mrs. Kingsley is over-protective. Dirk's at first unreciprocated love for Leeann precipitates a crisis that makes him leave home to hunt for an engineering job (his true bent is mechanics) and Leeann, who jockeys between the rich and the poor with phenomenal perception, does much to straighten things out both in her own home and the Kingsley's. In the end she has her man and her position, two achievements which the author does little to affirm as the actual goals throughout the course of her narrative.