Twelve-year-old Samuel Collier is a lowly commoner on the streets of London. So when he becomes the page of Captain John Smith and boards the Susan Constant, bound for the New World, he can't believe his good fortune. He's heard that gold washes ashore with every tide. But beginning with the stormy journey and his first contact with the native people, he realizes that the New World is nothing like he imagined. The lush Virginia shore where they establish the colony of James Town is both beautiful and forbidding, and it's hard to know who's a friend or foe. As he learns the language of the Algonquian Indians and observes Captain Smith's wise diplomacy, Samuel begins to see that he can be whomever he wants to be in this new land.

Author: Elisa Carbone
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 11/01/2007
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.60h x 5.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780142409329
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.3
Point Value: 7
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 106127 / Blood on the River: James Town 1607


Award: 2009 Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominee - Intermediate

About the Author
Elisa Carbone lives in Maryland and West Virginia.