Piper is a wonderful realistic fiction book for upper elementary students to complement their studies in 18th-century North American (or Post-Jacobean Scottish) history.

Nearly the entire narrative takes place on the Hector, which from the very start sets a tone for anxiety and dread. The boat is half-rotted, tiny, and the captain squeezes as many people as he can into the hold of the ship (5 people to one bunk). Add to that smallpox, the doldrums, and a hurricane, and you have a recipe for an exciting-yet harrowing-tale that will keep the attention of any child and explain to them the horrors of travel before there were airplanes to cart the same amount of people in a matter of hours the same distance.

The book also makes for a great comprehensive lesson plan that can include vocabulary words; social studies topics; science by way of physics, meteorology, and epidemiology; and, obviously, history. I highly recommend it and hope for a hard copy version for publication to purchase for my local library.

Piper by Jacqueline Halsey is a wonderful book that is a real learning experience. The book is about Piper and his experience on what it would have been like for the Scottish to come to New Scotland on the Hector in 1773. The book is very realistic.

This is a fairly short book that pulled me right in. I read most of it in one day and finished the next--not typical for me, but once I was hooked, it wouldn't let go. There are spoilers, so you are aware. I enjoyed the entire story and the detailed difficult travel that the poor folks had to go through to get to their new land. It wasn't glossed over, and it felt realistic throughout for the majority of it.
Except Da's death. I think it could have been developed significantly more, and included much more of emotional element. As it was, it seemed like just one more thing to put up with instead of the World-Stopping-Incident it would have been. I would like to see a follow-up story on this, explaining the hardships of settling into the new world. They were hinted at, but no detail was provided. I heartily recommend this for those who enjoy historical fiction with well developed characters and drama/action sequences.