The Powder Monkey

A newly illustrated edition with reader's notes for tricky words. Complete and unabridged.

A stranger offers Phil Leigh supper—and before morning, they’re both prisoners aboard a warship. The little runaway has found a friend in Jack Jeens, but the sea is taking them somewhere neither boy expected.

Phil Leigh clutches a hard biscuit beside a cannon’s open gunport, with the vast HMS Victory rolling beneath his feet. Pressed into the Royal Navy with Jack Jeens, Phil is bound for battle under Admiral Nelson—and the smallest boy aboard is soon given a dangerous job as a powder monkey. The ship is full of unfamiliar rules, towering rigging, and bigger boys who are eager to make Phil’s life miserable. Jack can’t shield him from every danger, and one reckless chase in the rigging may leave more than one boy in trouble. Can Phil find courage and a place among the crew before the next peril strikes?

This complete and unabridged edition includes reader’s notes for tricky words, bringing young readers into George Manville Fenn’s stirring sea adventure.

At Wise Minds Press we believe the years between childhood and the teenage leap are a golden window: curiosity runs high, vocabulary explodes and a single page can spark a lifetime of possibility. We were those wide‑eyed readers once—hungry for challenge, eager to roam far‑flung worlds, and guided by parents and teachers who knew the right story could light the path ahead. Today we honor that legacy by bringing time‑tested classics to young readers complete and unabridged, with reader's notes for the tricky words, and original illustrations for Grades 4‑7 (Ages 9‑12).

Our mission is simple: to place in every young reader's hands a bridge to literature's greatest adventures, turning boundless imagination into confidence, empathy, and the readiness to write their own remarkable futures.