The Stowaway A Tale of California Pirates by Kristiana Gregory

The book our reading group chose for our first effort is The Stowaway A Tale of California Pirates by Kristiana Gregory. This story takes place in and around Monterrey, California in 1818. The story follows Carlito as he tries to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the pirates.

The book was chosen because of the lack of knowledge about Spain's ownership of California. Students rarely learn about the history of this state before The gold rush of 1849.

My thoughts on the first ten chapters.

The first ten chapters where interesting because Carlito actually saw pirates.I think he felt a mixture of excitement and terror when he saw them.The book has Spanish words I think that it was kind of annoying because some words I didn't understand.It also mentions his mom and grandmother smoking.I thought that was kind off weird.The California pirates are real pirates so that is scary.If I was Carlito stuck on the boat I would jump out.When Carlito saw Billy he was surprised to know that he is a spaniard.