Family Book of The Day:
The Blue Castle
The Blue Castle is a 1926 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, best known for her novel Anne of Green Gables (1908).
The story takes place prior to World War I in the fictional town of Deerwood, located in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada. Deerwood is based on Bala, Ontario, which Montgomery visited in 1922. Maps of the two towns show similarities.
Valancy Stirling is 29 and has never been in love. She’s spent her entire life on a quiet little street in an ugly little house and never dared to contradict her domineering mother and her unforgiving aunt. But one day she receives a shocking, life-altering letter―and decides then and there that everything needs to change. For the first time in her life, she does exactly what she wants to and says exactly what she feels.
At first her family thinks she’s gone around the bend. But soon Valancy discovers more surprises and adventure than she ever thought possible. She also finds her one true love and the real-life version of the Blue Castle that she was sure only existed in her dreams…
Today’s Book of The Day is sponsored by this week’s Kids’ eBook of The Week:
The Treasure of Peril Island: An adventure novel for teens
The winds of change are about to fill the sails of Jack Drayton…
A penniless young man living on a barge on the Thames in 1903 London, Jack Drayton is unsure of where his life is heading. He’s trying to decide what to do with himself next when he meets a peculiar stranger. Needing a ride to shore one evening, Jack hitches a ride from this stranger, who speaks, dresses, and behaves as though he’s stepped out of another era. After Jack helps the man escape a fracas in town, he tells Jack that he is in fact Black Juan Gaskara, an infamous pirate, and claims that he’s on the run for his life.
Now, that would be all fine and good, except for the fact that the real Black Juan Gaskara would have to be over 112 years old; or more logically, dead.
Despite his disbelief however, Jack is intrigued by the man. Especially when he learns of the treasure that Gaskara has apparently hidden on Peril Island, a place only known to Black Juan.
Before Juan is murdered by descendants of the crew he double-crossed over the loot, he leaves Jack with a cryptogram and map that will reveal where the treasure is hidden. Now it’s up to Jack to recover the treasure before Black Juan’s enemies – who wish to use it to set up a global crime empire – get their hands on it first. With his best friend Hector at his side, Jack must venture on the dangerous ocean journey of a lifetime, following the cryptic clues to uncover the treasure before Gaskara’s foes put an end to his search…and his life!