Selah Award Winner for YA Literature
Award-winning author Eddie Jones is back, once again blending action, adventure, and humor into a swashbuckling fictional retelling of the exploits of pirates Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read — three people who, by any reasonable measure, should have chosen a different career path.
Ricky Bradshaw has a problem. Well, several problems. But the most pressing one is this: while searching for rumored treasure in a cave on Coffin Cay, a small island off the southwestern tip of Haiti, Ricky suffers an absence seizure.
Haiti, by the way, is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, but in this story, one of the richest for pirate lore and booty. It is here, at the start of this sea tale, that what looks like a handicap to some in the medical profession becomes Ricky's one genuine, certified, superpower.
For those unfamiliar, an absence seizure causes the sufferer to appear to be in a trance, completely unaware of their surroundings. Which, in Ricky's case, is actually an improvement, because during a previous episode, in his mind, he somehow traveled back three hundred years, uncovered treasure from the Nuestra Señora de Riqueza — a Spanish armada vessel whose name translates roughly to "we had a lot of gold until we didn't."
He then returned to tell his parents the exact location of where they should look. With hopes of paying their credit card debt, the three set out for the loot. But then, as before, Ricky checks out and ends up falling in with Calico Jack and crew.
The End of Calico Jack is a fictional retelling of the pirate escapades of the legendary "Calico Jack" John Rackham and his equally formidable companions, Anne Bonny and Mary Read — two women who were, by historical consensus, significantly tougher than everyone else on the ship, including Calico Jack. Some liberties were taken in the telling, but many of the events reflect what historians believe actually happened. The ones historians aren't sure about were probably more exciting, anyway.
As a bonus, the book includes an actual PIRATE MAP of Calico Jack's sailing routes and ports — because if you're going to read about pirates, you might as well know where they were when things went sideways.
And don't worry, parents — the Caribbean Chronicles Series keeps it cleaner than a freshly swabbed deck. There is zero sexual content, violence no worse than you'd find in a spirited game of Scrabble — assuming the letters spell "plunder" — and language cleaner than anything you'll hear in the school cafeteria on a Monday.
We hope you enjoy these pirate books for young adults, teens, and older kids — and we accept no responsibility for any sudden, inexplicable interest in nautical maps, buried treasure, or dogs named Barnacle.
Eddie is an award-winning author of YA fiction with a knack for crafting suspenseful mysteries and humorous adventures that captivate young readers. Known for his witty storytelling and creative world-building, Eddie is the author of The Caribbean Chronicles, a time-travel pirate fantasy adventure series, and The Caden Chronicles, a supernatural mystery series praised for their wholesome, faith-based, and humorous approach. A seasoned writer, Eddie's work has earned multiple Selah Awards for tween/teen YA fiction, the INSPY Award, and the Moonbeam Children's Book Award.Outside of writing, Eddie is a devoted father of two boys, an avid sailor, and a pirate at heart who loves to surf. Married to a girl he met at a stoplight in West Palm Beach during spring break-"a long time ago in a Ford Galaxy far, far away"-Eddie infuses a great sense of humor and imagination into everything he writes.
