Books in Jack Henry Adventures series

Meet Jacky Faber: London street urchin turned pirate! In the first three volumes of the beloved Bloody Jack Adventures, our heroine sets sail for the first time when she goes undercover as a ship’s boy; learns how to be a lady at an elite Boston school for girls; and boards a whaling ship, hoping to reunite with her love, Jaimy. This swashbuckling saga is full of surprises, wild misadventures, and fun! This boxed set contains three books: Bloody Jack, The Curse of the Blue Tattoo, and Under the Jolly Roger.

When Professor Santo Cortez is murdered while preparing a new Mayan exhibit at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, Det. Jack Riley and his Partner Det. Ken Alston begin to search for the killers. Teaming up with Riley's reporter girlfriend Moria Clark and Cortez's protoge Dr. Julie Carr, they track the killers from the mean streets of the Windy City to the jungles of the Yucatan Penninsula where they encounter the mastermind behind both the murder and the theft of priceless artifacts. A Man claiming to be the reincarnation of the ancient Mayan God Kulkulcan. Facing armed rebels and giant snake guardians as well as the wrath of an ancient God, Riley and company fight to make sure justice is served!

Jack's life is a crazy roller-coaster ride. At his fifth school in six years, he has a crackpot teacher who wont give him a break about his lousy handwriting and a secret crush who wants to be a policewoman. At home, he has a pesky little brother with a knack for breaking an arm whenever Jack's supposed to be looking after him, a terror for an older sister who mocks his belief in UF)s, all sorts of weird neighbors, and, last but not least, ferocious alligators in the canal behind his house. Writing in his diary about his good days and bad days is one way Jack survives his up-and-down year. but he's also a kid who knows that life can go any which way at any given moment. He might as well flip a coin: heads he wins, tails he loses, What will turn up next?

Jack's life is a crazy roller-coaster ride. At his fifth school in six years, he has a crackpot teacher who wont give him a break about his lousy handwriting and a secret crush who wants to be a policewoman. At home, he has a pesky little brother with a knack for breaking an arm whenever Jack's supposed to be looking after him, a terror for an older sister who mocks his belief in UF)s, all sorts of weird neighbors, and, last but not least, ferocious alligators in the canal behind his house.Writing in his diary about his good days and bad days is one way Jack survives his up-and-down year. but he's also a kid who knows that life can go any which way at any given moment. He might as well flip a coin: heads he wins, tails he loses, What will turn up next?

A prequel to Heads or Tails: Stories from the Sixth GradeInspired by the author's childhood diaries, this new collection of Jack Henry stories depicts a fifth-grade year to end all fifth-grade years. Living in a Miami rental home with a busy railroad track running a stone's throw from the backyard, the author's alter ego is plagued by a know-it-all older sister, a bizarre Francophile teacher, a series of crazed cats, a slightly off-kilter father, a tapeworm, and a pair of escaped convicts -- to name just a few of his antagonists. But for Jack Henry, hailed by School Library Journal as "an 'everyboy' whose world may be wacko but whose heart and spirit are eminently sane," no matter how rough the ride, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

He’s really at sea this timeAs the Henry family sets sail for a new life on Cape Hatteras, fourth-grader Jack is struggling to chart a course between his parents’ contradictory advice on making friends and influencing people. Just tell people what they want to hear, Dad advises. Just tell the truth, Mom cautions. Jack finds there are no easy answers as he drifts through his crazy school year, falling desperately in love with his young teacher, getting suckered into becoming a bad-behavior spy for the principal, and being forced to make a presentable pet out of a duck with backward feet. Indeed, with an airheaded, air-guitar-playing neighbor the closest thing to a friend, and a judgmental older sister his relentless enemy, it’s all he can do to stay afloat.This colorful and comic new collection of interrelated stories featuring the author’s hapless alter ego is a prequel to the other four books in the Jack Henry series, praised by Booklist for their “hilarious, exquisitely painful, and utterly on-target depiction of the life of an adolescent and preadolescent boy.” Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade Without a Clue is a 2004 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

An uproarious companion to Heads or Tails and Jack's New PowerAccording to his new motto - A WRITER'S JOB IS TO TURN HIS WORST EXPERIENCES INTO MONEY - Jack Henry is going to be filty rich even before he gets out of junior high, for his life is filled with the worst experiences imaginable. In the course of the few months covered in this cycle of interlinked stories, Jack is humiliated by a gorgeous syncronized swimmer, gets a tattoo the size of an ant on his big toe, flubs an IQ test and nearly fails wood shop, and has to dig up his dead dog not once but twice. And that's not the half of it. But, as The School Library Journal put it, Jack's "a survivor, an 'everyboy' whose world may be wacko but whose heart and spirit are eminently sane." Jack may not end up rolling in dough, but he, along with his humorously off-kilter familly, always keeps on trying.

Jack Henry has moved to the island of Barbados with his offbeat family and his secret diary. But still he can’t escape his penchant for wacky misadventure. Because of a headless chicken, he gets a violent case of blood poisoning. In a pepper-eating contest with his father, he discovers the perils of male bonding. And then he has his heartstrings twanged by an older woman who just happens to be his sister’s best friend. These are just a few of his trials and tribulations in these eight fierce and funny stories, based on the author’s own childhood diaries.

Bloody Jack is back and this time, she's facing a situation far worse than a ship full of murderous pirates. Curse of the Blue Tattoo, L.A. Meyer's sequel to the enormously popular Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship s Boy is just as bawdy and entertaining as the original. Left in Boston by the H.M.S. Dolphin crew when they discover her true sex, Jacky Faber finds herself navigating entirely new waters. It turns out that bloodthirsty buccaneers have nothing on the young ladies at the Lawson Peabody School! As Jacky observes, '...they re like any bunch of thirty or so cats thrown in a sack and shaken up good. They re mean in ways that boys never even thought of being.' It isn t long before Jacky shows her true colors by being arrested for 'exposing a Female Part' (her knee) while jigging in the streets and is 'busted down' to serving girl instead of student. Jacky soldiers on, getting herself into scrapes that her darling beau midshipman Jaimy Fletcher couldn't even begin to imagine, including uncovering a shady minister s evil secret and fixing a horse race with voodoo. And where in the world is seafaring Jaimy? As her letters to him continue to go unanswered, Jacky grows more and more worried. Still, at book s end she takes an assignment as 'lady's companion' to the captain s wife aboard a whaler headed for London. Astute readers will notice that the whaler s crabby captain has a peg leg and won t be surprised if in the next Bloody Jack Adventure, Jacky ends up hunting the great white whale!

A Pirate at heart, unlikely heroine Jacky Faber returns to sea in a truly swashbuckling tale filled with good humor, wit, and courage. After Leaving the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston--under dire circumstances, of course--Jacky boards a whaling ship bound for London, where she hopes to find her beloved Jaimy. But things don't go as planned, soon she is off on a wild misadventure at sea. She thwarts the lecherous advances of a crazy captain, rallies the sailors to her side, and ultimately gains command of a ship in His Majesty's Royal Navy. but Jacky's adventures don't end there...soon she is being called a pirate, and there's s price on her head!

The irrepressible Jacky Faber, condemned for life to the English penal colony in Australia for crimes against the Crown, has once again wriggled out of the grasp of British authorities. Back on her flagship, the Lorelei Lee, she eagerly heads back to England in the company of friends and her beloved Jaimy Fletcher. But when the voyage is waylaid by pirates, storms, and her own impetuous nature, Jacky is cast into a world of danger that extends from the South China Sea to the equally treacherous waters of London politics. With the help of her loyal friends, Jacky meets her enemies head on in this tale of love, courage, and redemption.