Last Call for THE CORAL ISLAND ...

Just a short post reminding readers that I'll be discussing R. M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island on Monday[1. 1. I'll be trying my best to connect it to Harry Potter and D. M. Cornish's Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy ... we'll see how it goes.]. If you were hoping to read along, now's your chance. All this week, I'll be posting quotes from the book in the Marginalia Box (in the right column). Also, I've included an excerpt from the preface to whet your appetite:

"If there is any boy or man who loves to be melancholy and morose, and who cannot enter with kindly sympathy into the regions of fun, let me seriously advise him to shut my book and put it away.  It is not meant for him."

Did I mention the book has pirates? And a shark? You can read it for free here.