THE TRUE ADVENTURE OF DANIEL HALL

Stanley (Petrosinella, p. 716, etc.) retells the wild adventures of Daniel Hall, seaman from New Bedford, Mass. The year is 1856 and Daniel, at the ripe old age of 14, ships out aboard the whaler Condor. The voyage is scheduled to last three years, but Daniel cuts his journey short when he flees the ship (and the brutal ministrations of the sadistic captain) while on the chilly eastern coast of Siberia. With a little help from the Yakut people, Daniel survives eight months of mean winter, and is ultimately returned to New Bedford on another whaler. In less adept hands, this would have been but another cruel tale, but Stanley's nimble touch keeps melodrama at bay, provides intriguing glimpses into whaling life, and renders lovely, age-worn pastel illustrations that look as though they were lifted from 19th-century cameos. An example of her care is the inset maps that appear on a number of the pages to show Daniel's location at a given time. A book as quick on its feet and as engaging, as real, as its young hero.