It is around the turn of the twentieth century, and sixteen-year-old Ramon Salazar lives in the town of La Paz on the Baja California coast of Mexico, with his father Blas, the owner of a lucrative pearl fishing business, mother, and two sisters. Blas Salazar had promised his son that when he turned sixteen he would make Ramon a partner in his business, allow him to sail with the fleet, and teach him how to dive for pearls. However, following his birthday Ramon gets to go only once, staying on the boat, and afterwards is left home to work in the shop because his father is afraid of losing his only son to the sea. So Ramon makes a secret arrangement with an Indian diver named Soto Luzon to learn how to dive for pearls from him while his father’s fleet is out. One of Senor Salazar’s divers, Gaspar Ruiz, a young man who is called the Sevillano because he came from Seville, Spain, claims to have found a giant pearl the size of a hen’s egg in the Gulf of Persia which he sold to the Shah for a lot of money. Also, in the Vermilion Sea off the shores of La Paz, there is a giant ray known as the Manta Diablo, stories of which mothers in La Paz used to frighten their children into obedience. Soto Luzon says that the Manta Diablo lives in and guards the lagoon near his house, so Ramon goes there to dive and finds The Pearl of Heaven. When Senor Salazar is not offered enough money for it, he gives it to the church. But after the Salazar fleet is destroyed in a storm and everyone, including Ramon’s father, is lost, except for the Sevillano who manages to escape, Ramon finds that the pearl has brought him two enemies—the Manta Diablo and the Sevillano. Then the pearl is stolen. Who took it? And what will happen to Ramon? Author Scott O’Dell has written some great books. We liked Island of the Blue Dolphins, although we did not care for its sequel Zia quite as well, and we really liked The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day about William Tyndale. I wonder if O’Dell based The Black Pearl on the same Mexican legend that John Steinbeck used for his book The Pearl. It is an interesting adventure-type story with a touch of suspense that has little objectionable. The Spanish phrase “Madre de Dios,” which means “Mother of God,” is used a couple of times as an exclamation, which I understand is fairly common in Mexico. As one might expect, there are several Roman Catholic beliefs and practices mentioned, with which those of us who are Protestants would not agree. In fact, one person suggested, “Treatment of the Madonna by the people could be impetus for a paper on the theology errors in the book.” However, I choose to look upon these things as simply O’Dell’s depiction of the religious customs of the people in a historical fiction setting. It won a Newbery Honor in 1968. Another individual said that it contains “elements of The Old Man and the Sea and Moby Dick” and is a “heavily symbolic tale about evil, art, the artist, greed and nature.”
I once read a story about a black pearl. It was a Boxcar Children mystery and the magnificence of black pearls plus the aura of exotic adventure intrigued me entirely. So, when I found The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell, I was excited. No really. Jumping-up-and-down level excited.The Story.For all of his years Ramon Salazar has wished to accompany his father on the great pearl harvests. But always his father said he was too young, that when he was sixteen and no longer a scrawny child he could go. In the mean time he must be content to wait and admire the pearls brought in by the workers.So Ramon waited and admired the prizes which were collected into his father’s pearl house. He waited and he yearned for the day when he would sail across the sea at his father's side to gather the pearls himself. The day he turned sixteen was the happiest of his life, but it was fearful, too. For as his father walked him through the rooms of Salazar and Son, the great dealers of pearls, and told him of the craft of pearls, Ramon felt that he would never know enough to judge a good pearl, would never try diving through the water himself.His father brought him on a few diving expeditions, but always Ramon remained above water. But it is under the water that he yearns to be, finding the big pearls himself. So one day when Soto Luzon the Indian comes to Salazar and Son to sell a pearl, Ramon asks of him a favor. He asks Luzon to teach him to dive. Luzon agrees.Luzon brings Ramon to a hidden lagoon – a lagoon where it is whispered El Diablo, the monstrous devilfish lives. Here Luzon teaches Ramon to dive, and here, in the very cave where El Diablo is said to live he finds a black pearl as monstrous as the fish. He brings the pearl to his house where crowds gather and cheer. Ramon has found the Paragon of Pearls and he is happy.But happiness is not all that the Pearl brings. It brings death and destruction to the Salazar fleet and doubt to Ramon’s mind. He was warned that Manta Diablo would be angry for the taking of the Pearl, but could the devilfish really have caused the storm? Is returning the Pearl the only way to stop the devastation?Visit The Blithering Bookster to read the rest of my review and to read more like it!http://blitheringbookster.com/home/20...
What do You think about The Black Pearl (1999)?
WARNIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! i might give to much info about this book wasreally boring for me , a part of mexico called La Paz where a young boy name Ramon lives.His father works under the water, his not a submarine, but he finds pearls under the sea.beautiful pearls which he sells to the people. Ramon whishes that one day he would be just like his father . Ramon's dad could tell if a pearl was good enough to be sell by raising it up to the sun and weighting it. but first he needed to learn how to open the selfs. One day Ramon asked his dad to take him with him, his dad didnt reply him, he said that it could be dangeous , but Ramon wanted to so bad soo he reply him saying "the sea is calm today" , him dad stayed quiet & did not took him with him. One afternoon his dad told him that he was going to teach him how to search for pearls under the water Ramon got really excited. He started to learned how to determine if a pearls was either fragile or was in good conditions to be sell, he learned how to open the selfs ,he was becoming an expert. Until one day he found "The Black Pearl" .
—Karenc5
When Ramon finds the perfect black pearl, he has no idea what he is about to get into. The black pearl supposedly belongs to the Manta Diablo, a giant manta ray who is apparently the legendary king of the seas. Ramon does not believe that such a creature even exists when he finds the pearl, but when crazy things begin to happen, Ramon begins to believe that maybe the manta diablo does exist after all...This was a Newberry Honor book, but I personally do not see why it was awarded as such. The writing was good and the story was kind of interesting, but beyond that, there was no draw to this book for me. In fact, I kind of found it boring. Maybe it would be a great story for much younger readers than I, but I did not love this book. The characters were flat, the story line was nothing fantastic and the writing was good, but not superb. These are just my opinions of the book and maybe some people love the book, but I did not and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone over the age of....11.
—Jessica
Genre-Junior Books-Science FictionThis story is about a young boy,Ramon, that finds a black pearl and awakens a monster, Manta Diablo. Having no luck selling it, and a tragedy of four men drowning with one being the "enemy" of the town, he retuned the black pearl back to church. A. Area of comment- illustrationsB. I feel the lack of illustrations is appropriate for this stype of story. This is a great story for no illustrations because it gives the reader a sense of imagination. The descriptive words here and there let the reader fill in some blanks, but also let the reader's imagination run wild. This creature of the ocean will most likely be viewed differently by each reader.C. On page 42 it states, "The Manta Diablo is larger than the largest ship in the harbor. He has seven rows of teeth." This intends to have the reader's imagination go wherever it wants, which makes the story fun and creative. Since this book is a Newbery Award since 1967, it is not expected to be used too often in the classroom, but maybe integrated in the teaching when there is a science fiction book talk or something along those lines. Though the plot and values of the story are great I am not sure if there is such an area of curriculum where this book fits. Great book though!
—Laura
