Lawrence, Iain Books

The Wreckers (The High Seas Trilogy)

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Yearling Amazon Marketplace: 216 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Action & Adventure
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

See if you can survive on this mysterious, murderous island! By Carri, Cheyenne, Shaina, and Anna 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

From sharp, rocky cliffs, to misleading lanterns, to a legless man, The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence is an exciting, heart stopping novel about trust and survival. John Spencer, his father, and his father's ship, The Isle of Skye, have wrecked on an un-mapped, mysterious island by supposedly misleading lanterns. While being hunted by vicious wreckers (who killed off the remains of his crew), John is on a quest to find his father who's being held captive by the legless man.

Simon Mawgan, a plump, wealthy character with unnatural mood swings who owns the land, and his brave, kind-hearted niece, Mary, take John in to help him survive. John, the main character, a semi-cowardly, suspicious, independent young man, has the ability to solve the mystery of the false beacons, but can he do it? Can use both his brain and his brawn?

Although the plot is a little predictable, it has strong voice and great description, especially when he describes his father's rotting foot. Ages ten and up for violence and shocking images.

Editorial Review:

There was once a village bred by evil. On the barren coast of Cornwall, England, lived a community who prayed for shipwrecks, a community who lured storm-tossed ships to crash upon the sharp rocks of their shore. They fed and clothed themselves with the loot salvaged from the wreckage; dead sailors' tools and trinkets became decorations for their homes. Most never questioned their murderous way of life.

Then, upon that pirates' shore crashed the ship The Isle of Skye. And the youngest of its crew members, 14-year-old John Spencer, survived the wreck. But would he escape the wreckers? This is his harrowing tale.

The Buccaneers (High Seas Trilogy)

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $5.99 List Price: $5.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Yearling Amazon Marketplace: 89 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Buccaneers 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

My book the Buccaneers is a very good book if you like adventures. It took place in London and out on in the ocean. I recommend this book to a teenager or older. If you like pirates you will love this book. When I started reading this I couldn't put it down at all. It makes you want to keep reading tell you finish it. There's a captain and his ship friends who try to sail across the sea until they found an island where there were some very nasty pirates who love to cook people alive.

Editorial Review:

"There’s pirates in the West Indies. Cannibals. They cook you alive," says Mr. Spencer to his son. These words will come to haunt 17-year-old John as he embarks on his first voyage to foreign lands. Carrying cargo destined for Jamaica, John and his crew of the Dragon set off for waters few of them have sailed before. So when they come upon a lifeboat adrift at sea, some are wary of the sailor aboard. Something about his story doesn’t quite make sense. Still, John respects the stranger’s awe-inspiring seamanship. With Horn on deck, he feels the Dragon is in the best of hands.
But is Horn to be trusted? The answer becomes muddled as the Dragon encounters a very real — and very dangerous — pirate ship. Now John starts to believe his father’s warnings, especially after he becomes stranded on an island reputed to have buried treasure. A place teeming with buccaneers!


From the Hardcover edition.

The Smugglers (The High Seas Trilogy)

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $6.50 List Price: $6.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Yearling Amazon Marketplace: 167 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Andrew Yu P.3 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The Smugglers
Book review

This book is about a boy named John. John had a father who bought a ship called the dragon. This dragon caused a lot of trouble to John and his father. Also, his captain was a very evil man that used to smuggle other people and products like brandy. He also tried to kill John on the way to London. Luckily, Dasher helped save Johns life several times.
I chose this book because my friend had told me that it was fun. The cover was also very interesting. The designs and the boat looked very detailed in the huge storm. The smugglers sounded like a very fun and exciting book. Once I read the first few chapters, it felt as if I had to read the rest of the book. I liked this book because it had many exciting parts and lots of action.
My favorite part of the book is when John gets shot from dasher. He got shot twice and was very scared. He talked about getting flashbacks right before you die. The reason why I liked this part is because it was very funny. A few pages after this event, it explains that the gun he used had no real bullets and just made a hole on his clothes.

Editorial Review:

"Steer clear of that ship," warns the mysterious gentleman who shares a coach with John and his father. "Death she'll bring you," says the man. "It's the way of a ship that was christened with blood."

This is an ominous introduction to the schooner John is about to be entrusted with for a voyage to London. But he's too charmed by the pretty Dragon to heed the advice. The ship looks clever and quick, and John can hardly wait to sail her. She was a smugglers' vessel once, but now she's his Dragon, and she'll proudly carry wool for honest trade.

But soon John will be forced to consider the gentleman's warning. And to wonder what he really knows about his bonny crew.

The Cannibals: The Curse of the Jolly Stone Trilogy, Book II

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $6.50 List Price: $6.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Laurel Leaf Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $1.40

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

As Tom Tin nears Australia, where he’s to serve a lengthy sentence for a murder he didn’t commit, he and his fellow convict, Midgely, plot their escape. No matter that the ship carrying them and the other juvenile criminals is captained by Tom’s father. Tom knows his father can’t help him clear his name and regain his freedom–not as long as Mr. Goodfellow, a man who wants the ruin of the Tin family, wields power back in London. So Tom and Midgely decide to go overboard! So do other boys who seize their chance at liberty–boys who aren’t so innocent, and who have it in for Tom.
To make things worse, the islands in the Pacific look inviting, but Tom remembers his father’s warnings: headhunters and cannibals lurk there! The boys go anyway. And as conflict among them mounts, as they encounter the very dangers Captain Tin spoke of, Tom must fight to keep himself and Midgely alive.


From the Hardcover edition.

Lord of the Nutcracker Men (Readers Circle)

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $5.99 List Price: $5.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Laurel Leaf Amazon Marketplace: 83 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ten-year-old Johnny eagerly plays at war with the army of nutcracker soldiers his toymaker father whittles for him. He demolishes imaginary foes. But in 1914 Germany looms as the real enemy of Europe, and all too soon Johnny’s father is swept up in the war to end all wars. He proudly enlists with his British countrymen to fight at the front in France. The war, though, is nothing like what any soldier or person at home expected.

The letters that arrive from Johnny’s dad reveal the ugly realities of combat — and the soldiers he carves and encloses begin to bear its scars. Still, Johnny adds these soldiers to his armies of Huns, Tommies, and Frenchmen, engaging them in furious fights. But when these games seem to foretell his dad’s real battles, Johnny thinks he possesses godlike powers over his wooden men. He fears he controls his father’s fate, the lives of all the soldiers in no-man’s land, and the outcome of the war itself.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Castaways

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $11.99 List Price: $15.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Delacorte Books for Young Readers Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $4.41

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Fiction -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Courtesy of Teens Read Too 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

THE CASTAWAYS is the third book of the trilogy including The Convicts and The Cannibals: The Curse of the Jolly Stone Trilogy, Book II (The Curse of the Jolly Stone Trilogy), and starts off with Tom Tin and his companions adrift at sea. They have escaped the punishment of being sent to Australia as convicts only to find themselves aboard a steamship that is running dangerously low on fuel and with no idea of where they are. They find a ship that is apparently deserted. Fearing that it may be the ghost ship Flying Dutchman, they clamber aboard anyway, perhaps on a course toward certain doom.

Then they locate two men stranded on an iceberg, and take them on board, but when Tom hears them plotting to get rid of him, he is just sure that they are castaways from the very ship they are on, and probably have killed all of the previous crew members.

In a riotous episode, the castaways take Tom and his companions prisoner and prepare to sell them as slaves. Tom and the kids manage to escape that fate and sail to England, where they meet with more adversity and imprisonment.

My only complaint with THE CASTAWAYS is that there are a number of references to episodes that happened in the previous two books, and if you haven't read them, you must use your imagination to get you up to speed on the story line.

A rollicking, fast-moving adventure that melds neatly with the facts of early shipping, pirates, the slave trade, and transporting convicts to Australia. There are characters you will love and a story that keeps you turning the pages to see what happens next, complete with a very satisfying, surprise ending.

Reviewed by: Grandma Bev

Editorial Review:

ADRIFT AT SEA, Tom Tin and his four convict companions are only too glad when they come upon a deserted ship. The boys clamber aboard, not knowing whether they've been saved or set on a course toward doom. But after rescuing two men stranded on a melting iceberg, Tom begins to suspect that these unsavory sailors are dangerous castaways from this very vessel. The more Tom questions the men, the more they dislike him. So, when Tom overhears them plotting to get rid of him, he knows they mean it. But the other boys don't feel threatened - at least not until the sailors attempt to sell them as slaves, a decision that ends with death for some . . . and with Tom sailing the ship home to England.

Soon Tom discovers that he has to cast away every ill-intentioned companion from his voyage home before he can truly be free.

The Seance

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $11.99 List Price: $15.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Delacorte Books for Young Readers Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Writer of Fiction for Young Readers 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Writer Wellness: A Writer's Path to Health and Creativity

I discovered author Iain Lawrence a few years ago while perusing the junior room of our local library as my daughters searched for their own books. His 2001 title "Lord of the Nutcracker Men" caught my eye. I'm a dance journalist and have performed in hundreds of performances of "The Nutcracker" so you can guess why the book attracted me. It was not another rendition of the famous E.T.A. Hoffmann tale. It was a great book.

Hence, I have kept my eyes peeled for other I.L. books and have read everything he has published since. Love them all. He is a master at tension and story telling, and his use of metaphor and simile is captivating. Librarians, teachers, and parents looking for fiction suitable and interesting to young male readers should definitely look at I.L. books. His journalism background creates tight writing. His writing muscle is unique and strong. His voice is compelling but not beyond the scope of young readers. It's obvious he loves what he writes and believes his stories are worth it. They are.

I'm also a historical romance writer. (First book coming soon!) The question of writing about actual historical figures is a tricky one. Some writers get it and others don't. Lawrence writes his stories around young men (boys and teens) who engage with actual historical figures and he is able to pull off the chore. For "The Seance," Lawrence writes a mystical adventure for twelve year-old Scooter King who meets his idol Harry Houdini. Together they solve a mystery and survive a near-death experience. Again, Lawrence pulls this off masterfully. Believability is a tool he knows how to use.

Lawrence is smart. He provides a list of books at the back of "The Seance" for readers interested in doing their own research on the topics in the book.

I heartily recommend this book to young readers and adults interested in fiction for kids that engages their minds and their emotions in a healthy, literary sense.

Editorial Review:

SCOOTER KING UNDERSTANDS illusions. In the midst of the Roaring Twenties, he performs them behind the scenes at his mother’s séances, giving the impression that Madam King communicates with the dead. Scooter also admires Harry Houdini and can hardly wait to see the famed magician escape from his razzle-dazzle Burmese Torture Tank. But when Scooter stumbles upon a dead body in the visiting Houdini’s tank, it’s no illusion. Who could the murderer be? And did he—or she—kill the right person?

As Scooter sets out to unmask the killer, the mysterious worlds of mediums, séances, and magic are revealed. No one is above suspicion, and appearances are deceiving. If Scooter doesn’t sort out the clues—and fast—he may end up as the next dead body.

B for Buster

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $5.99 List Price: $5.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Laurel Leaf Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Fiction -> Military & Wars
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Action & Adventure

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nicknamed after his hometown of Kakabeka, Canada, Kak dreams of flying with the Allied bombers in World War II. So at 16, underage and desperate to escape his abusive parents, he enlists in the Canadian Air Force. Soon he is trained as a wireless operator and sent to a squadron in England, where he’s unabashedly gung ho about flying his first op. He thinks the night ops over Germany will be like the heroic missions of his favorite comic-book heroes. Good will vanquish evil. But his first time out, in a plane called B for Buster, reveals the ops for what they really are—a harrowing ordeal.

The bombing raids bring searchlights . . . artillery from below . . . and night fighters above hunting to take the bombers down. One hit, Kak knows, and B for Buster, along with him and his six crewmates, could be destroyed.

Kak is terrified.

He can’t confide his feelings to his crew, since he’s already worried that they’ll find out his age. Besides, none of them seem afraid. Only in Bert, the slovenly caretaker of the homing pigeons that go on every op, does Kak find an unlikely friend. Bert seems to understand what the other men don’t talk about—the shame, the sense of duty, and the paralyzing fear. As Kak seeks out Bert’s company, he somehow finds the strength to face his own uncertain future.


From the Hardcover edition.

Ghost Boy

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Laurel Leaf Amazon Marketplace: 202 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Social Issues -> Runaways
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Social Situations -> Self-Esteem & Self-Respect -> Fiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Fourteen-year-old Harold Kline is an albino--white from head to toe, even his hair and his eyes that are like drops of water. His life is made unbearable by the other kids, who call him "snow" or "maggot," and ever since his father died and his brother was reported missing in Vietnam, his mother has become angry and withdrawn. And so Harold runs away, although it is a wrench to leave Honey, the elderly dog who has been his only comfort. And where would an albino kid on the run end up? In the circus, of course--in this case a down-at-the-heels road show where he is sheltered by a kindly lady midget and her huge man-beast companion and given hugs and unquestioning acceptance by the other "freaks." There he falls in love with the beautiful but duplicitous trick horseback rider and gains self-respect and the admiration of the other circus folks when he accomplishes the seemingly impossible feat of teaching the elephants to play baseball. But Gypsy Magda forecasts a "great harm" lurking in the future, and it has something to do with Harold's rejection of the "freaks" who have sheltered him as one of their own.

In this strange, moving novel, the author of sea adventures The Wreckers and The Smugglers has built a compelling metaphor for the universal teenage fear of being declared an outsider. With great emotional veracity, Iain Lawrence plays many intriguing variations on the theme of alienation in a work full of fascinating characters, marvelous scenes, and tragic surprises. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

The Convicts

Iain Lawrence

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Delacorte Books for Young Readers Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lawrence, Iain
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Fiction -> Europe
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Action & Adventure

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

What a read!! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Although the book could be dark at times, it was also very captivating. I found myself desperately hoping that Tom would escape and live happily ever after. Even though the book is about Tom's experiences, I was just as interested in and attached to Midge. Lawrence has written a book that could be read by almost any age from some upper-elementary schoolchildren to high school students. Lawrence's "Author's Note" at the end was helpful in comparing the book's historical accuracy.

Editorial Review:

After seeing his father hauled off to debtor’s prison, Tom Tin sets out to take revenge on Mr. Goodfellow, the man responsible for his family’s misfortunes. But the fog-filled London streets are teeming with sinister characters. Tom encounters a blind man who scavenges the riverbed for treasure—and wants what Tom digs up; Worms, a body snatcher who reveals a shocking surprise; and a nasty gang of young pickpockets who mistake Tom for someone ominously known as the Smasher. And ultimately, Tom comes up against the cruel hand of the law.

Accused of murder, Tom is given a seven-year sentence. He is to be transported to Van Diemen’s Land with other juvenile convicts. But Tom can’t abide life on the Hulk, the old ship where the boys are temporarily held. He decides to escape. But if he’s to succeed, his luck needs to turn. . . .