Escape from the Isle of Thunder

Book Two of the Voyages of the Ballahoo Adventures. This book details the exciting conclusion from the first book. The dragon has charged. Captain Tymothius Manik and his crew of the merchantman Ballahoo are pinned on a beach behind a fallen log, watching a creature four men tall stride past them in the morning sun. They survive the moment. They reach the boat. They make it back to the lagoon with three dragon eggs and their lives, and the Ballahoo prepares to sail home rich.

Then the mountain wakes up.

When a volcanic eruption sends every dragon on the island fleeing in terror, Captain Ty sees what no one else sees: the great birds are afraid of a loud noise. They are nearly blind in the dark. They hunt by sight. And somewhere behind a long line of dunes, a colony of mothers is sitting on dozens of warm white eggs.

The plan is simple. The plan is mad. The plan needs a boy small enough to crawl in a palm-leaf cloak under starlight, quick enough to outrun what cannot see him, and steady enough to light a fuse with a friction-cap pulled by his own teeth while a sleeping monster breathes on the back of his neck.

The plan needs Roop.

What follows is the hardest night of Roop's young life - a creep up the inside of a sand dune, a nest built of bones, a five-second fuse, and a frantic flight back across a beach alive with terrified giants. And when the Ballahoo finally clears the cliffs of the lagoon with five warm eggs in her cabin, the worst of the voyage is still ahead, carried on the sails of a black-hulled schooner that knows exactly what cargo she is chasing.

A high-seas pursuit. A Captain's old trick learned from a dead Frenchman. A king who rides a dragon into his own feast. And a boy of fourteen with a chest of gold, a wooden whistle, and a story he will tell for the rest of his life.

What you'll find inside:

• Thirteen chapters of breathless seafaring adventure, in the same plainspoken voice and locked format as Book One
• The full crew of the Ballahoo returning, deepened, and tested harder than before
• A fully realized night raid that pays off every clue laid in Book One
• Captain Ty's tale of the Smoking Room - a sea-story that becomes flesh before the next port
• The Kili King's grand entrance on a trained thunder-bird, and the gold the Ballahoo was promised
• Sequel hooks for the next voyages: a singing reef in the south, a slave ship in the Bay of Bengal, and a Captain's old enemy returning

Perfect for readers of:

• Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island
• Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels
• Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
• Classic seafaring adventure with a fantasy edge

Read Book One, The Ballahoo and the Isle of Thunder, for the full voyage from the Jungle Port to the lagoon of giants.

Ages 12 and up. Adventure / Fantasy / Coming of Age.

Roop is fourteen years old. He has stolen from a dragon. He has a chest of gold. He has a Captain who loves him.

The voyages of the Ballahoo have only just begun.