The Sea Wolves

Gr 6 Up—This reimagining of Jack London's The Sea Wolf replaces his main character, Humphrey van Weyden, with the 18-year-old author and adventurer himself and populates the ship on which Jack is held hostage with a captain and crew of werewolf pirates. The beasts raid ships not just for booty, but also for bodies to consume beneath the light of the full moon. As pandering and cheesy as the story might sound, it's actually a remarkably inventive, well-written, and action-packed remix, with plenty of plot points, themes, and characters that parallel the original. The ship's captain, Ghost, for example, represents an amoral, survival-of-the-fittest viewpoint-just as Wolf Larsen does in Sea Wolf—and he tries throughout the story to convince Jack that his morality is a foolish human shortcoming. London's character Maud Brewster is replaced by Sabine, a beguiling seer whose magical talents Ghost uses to guide him toward ships and whose presence lends a note of mysterious romance to the otherwise brutal story. Readers with a taste for kinetic high-seas adventures are going to love this supernatural spin on London's seafaring classic.—Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI