Jim Davis (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

This 1911 novel about a twelve-year-old boy who falls in with a band of bloodthirsty pirates is a maritime thriller on par with Robert Louis Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling. At first Jim loves the excitement of his new lifestyle, but soon finds out he's in over his head! The author, who spent part of his youth keeping journals of his own steamship and windjammer travels, brings to life the beauty and peril of the oceans.