The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

Based on a true story, this epic historical novel uses a dual-timeline narrative to illuminate the lives of two children separated by over three hundred years, both connected by the real-life 1629 shipwreck of the Dutch East India Company flagship, the Batavia. In 1629, a newly orphaned young girl named Mayken is aboard the Batavia, bound for the Dutch East Indies. Curious and resourceful, she explores the ship and searches for a mythical monster known as the Bullebak, unaware that the true monsters and the ship's fate are far more sinister. Three hundred years later, in 1989, a lonely boy named Gil is sent to live with his reclusive fisherman grandfather on a tiny, remote island off the coast of Western Australia—the very same reef-shrouded site where the Batavia met its end. Struggling to find his place, Gil is drawn to the stories of an infamous shipwreck and the ghost of a Dutch girl said to haunt the island. The novel is a compelling tale of friendship, sacrifice, brutality, and forgiveness, exploring how the past echoes into the present.

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