The Giant Rat of Sumatra
or Pirates Galore
By Sid Fleischman; John Hendrix (Illustrator)
(Greenwillow Books, Library Binding, 9780060742393, 208pp.)
Publication Date: January 15, 2005
Other Editions of This Title: Prebound (August 2006), Paperback (July 12, 2006), Hardcover (February 2005)
Categories: Humorous Stories
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A swashbuckling pirate ship cuts through the early morning fog. Crouching like a tiger about to spring, her figurehead is a huge and ferocious rat with crooked teeth and gouged-out eyes.
When the daring Giant Rat of Sumatra drops anchor in San Diego, twelve-year-old cabin boy Shipwreck only wants to begin his long journey home to Boston. Instead he encounters:
snarling mutineers
barefoot bandits
hairbreadth escapes
duels
cunning barkeeps
simmering revenge
secret identities
scrappy orphans
betrayals
lost loves
old enemies
new villains
heroic last stands
and razzle-dazzle treasure so well hidden that only someone as quick and clever as Shipwreck could keep up with it.
Plucked from the sea by the most notorious pirate in the Pacific, Shipwreck discovers his adventure is only beginning.
"I'm too lazy to retire," says Sid Fleischman, author of more than sixty books for children, adults, and magicians. His tales have been translated into nineteen languages. Among his many awards is the Newbery Medal for his novel The Whipping Boy.
The author described his wasted youth as a magician and newspaperman in his autobiography, The Abracadabra Kid. His most recent books are The Entertainer and the Dybbuk, a novel, and two biographies, The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West and Escape! The Story of The Great Houdini.
Sid Fleischman lives in Santa Monica, California.
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