M. A. Noble

Taking Hart M. A. Noble

Cannons boom as 16-year-old Corey navigates the streets full of Bicentennial disguises--with an item someone would kill for! He must summon the courage to disprove a legend and find answers: Why did Mom disappear into the St. Lawrence, and who is the woman wearing her earring? Corey must save someone he loves in this "War of 1812" town...where the real threat is here and now.. COREY WORDER is not a typical 16-year-old. He doesn't bask in the 1000 Island sun or go muskie fishing or treasure hunting in the St. Lawrence River. And he does NOT share in local pride of the War of 1812 heritage. .PAT WORDER DESERTED the crew and hid the British gold. Everyone in Harts Landing has an ancestor who risked his life battling the British... everyone except Corey. His ancestor Pat Worder left the crew and made off with the treasure... and no 1000 Islands treasure hunter has ever found the missing gold. .A DISAPPEARING JOURNAL, Mom's earring, abandoned scuba tanks... When odd things begin to happen in the 1000 Islands, Corey summons the courage to follow the clues, but they only raise questions: Why does the privateer's diary disappear before he can decipher it? Why are scuba tanks hidden among the Thousand Islands along the Canadian border? Is hockey player Auger Hart just nasty when he threatens Corey's dog, or does he have something to do with the missing journal? The bicentennial puzzle seems too complicated too solve until... .PRETTY AND TALENTED SAMANTHA joins Corey. He takes heart, and she takes his, until he discovers her liason with Auger Hart. Is she a deserter, too? When Corey stumbles upon evidence of a 200-year-old truth someone would kill for, can he protect it without Sam's help? .PATRIOTS THREATEN REDCOATS in the streets in the War of 1812 bicentennial celebration, and Corey must make it through a town full of disguises, find his way out of an underwater cave before running out of oxygen, and make a heroic attempt to save a loved one. It's a tall order for a boy who is convinced he is the product of a deserter. Can he change his mind to set the record straight and rewrite local history? Earthquakes, arsenic, a 200-year-old brass buckle, and a woman that reminds him of Mom all figure in Corey Worder's pursuit of the truth in Harts Landing, a small resort town on the St. Lawrence River of Northern New York. The 1000 Islands are home to intrigue both factual and fictitious..FACTS BEHIND THE FICTION: The War of 1812 in the 1000 Islands Pirates and privateers in the St. Lawrence River? Yes, the Thousand Islands--with its varying depths and river currents, hidden shoals, and hundreds of small islands and coves--has provided a backdrop for mystery, trickery, and treachery throughout American history. Real life pirates, spies, and privateers have used the maze of river channels and islands to accomplish missions both selfish and patriotic. During the War of 1812, British ships carried supplies and military pay across the Atlantic and then upriver on the St. Lawrence to Montreal. (Yes, on the St. Lawrence, upriver is southwest.) Then the cargo was carried in flat-bottomed boats farther upriver, past the rapids (and possibly offloaded again west of Prescott to a lake-sailing ship) to Kingston in Upper Canada. On its way, the cargo would pass through the Thousand Islands before entering Lake Ontario; British gunboats protected these vessels from ambush among the maze of islands and coves where an enemy could hide.