Cane Warriors

Written by Alex Wheatle

Narrated by Noel Arthur

NOBODY FREE TILL EVERYBODY FREE.

Moa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugarcane plantation
for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an
uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky. Moa is to be a cane warrior, and fight for the freedom
of all the enslaved people in the nearby plantations. But before they can escape, Moa and his
friend Keverton must face their first great task: to kill their overseer, Misser Donaldson. Time
is ticking as the day of the uprising approaches . . .

Irresistible, gripping, and unforgettable, CANE WARRIORS follows the true story of Tacky’s
War in Jamaica, 1760.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781705010020

Alex Wheatle

Alex Wheatle is the award-winning author of Brixton Rock which was published in 1999. He spend most of his childhood in care homes and foster families. ‘‘East of Acre Lane’ won the 1999 London Arts Board London Writers’ Award. He has worked with the Book Trust and the London Arts Board to promote literature within the city. He lives in South London with his wife and three children.

Reviews for Cane Warriors

[empress8411 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Both joyful and heartbreaking, this is a powerful story of childhood lost to war. Worth reading, although not for the faint of heart. The author does a fine job of bringing this world and events to light, and teaching the reader about this part of the world.

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fourteen year old slave boy Mao is asked to be a participant in the 1760 Jamaican slave rebellion which came to be known as Tacky’s war. He longs to be a man and to protect his people including his good friend, an eleven year old girl who fears to be taken any evening now by one of the white men.Mao also fears what is ahead.I found this to be an amazing story which I had trouble putting down and read almost straight through. Wheatle created an unforgettable, well-realized character with Mao. The story is wonderfully told with historical facts, legends and word-of-mouth knit tightly together.My only reservation about recommending this book is that the dialogue is written in patois, which might make it a challenge for a younger reader. At times, I read the dialogue outloud which helped immensely.I think this will probably be one of my favorite YA reads of 2021.

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As a junior high librarian, I was ecstatic to receive this book and to review it! I want the library collection to represent all sorts of characters, backgrounds, and histories as possible, and to add another book to the historical fiction collection that focused on an event in history not often discussed is always exciting. Though I personally appreciate historical fiction novels that provide more depth into characters and events, I think this story was appropriate to its younger audience, allowing the content to translate a bit more easily. Fairly plot-driven books are also crowd pleasers, especially for our more reluctant readers!

[dgrachel · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

YA historical fiction about Tacky’s Rebellion, a slave uprising in Jamaica in 1760, told from the perspective of a fourteen year old combatant, Moa. I recommend audio for this because the dialect is heavy. I hadn’t heard of Tacky’s War before, so I appreciate the education, but I found the prose dry, and I know pre-teen/teen me would not have had the patience to finish it.

[exploreacademy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great historical fiction novel for adults and children alike. It's a well written and captivating story about a young boy's loyalty, rebellion, and life.

[bayleaf_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Through fiction, Alex Wheatle’s Cane Warriors introduced me to Tacky’s Rebellion, a time in British colonial and Jamaican history of which I was unaware. Through the voice of Moa, a fourteen-year-old slave who joins the rebellion against his father’s wishes, this excellent telling conveys the hopes, fears, and courage of the rebels as they go up against those who have tyrannized them for so long. The mark of a good historical novel for me is one that encourages me to read further on the topic. This I did when reading Cane Warriors. It has emotional and educational appeal and value to both young adult and adult readers and I’m very fortunate to have been one of the latter.

[carolee888 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cane Warriors has to be a classic. It is written for teen readers so that means that it restricts the amount of violent details and refers in polite way to future rape. But it is historical fiction, it does not speak for the slave owners only for the slaves in Tacky's War in Jamaca in 1760. The voice that we is Moa, the youngest of the rebellion. He was only fourteen years old, not considered to be a man yet.He chopped sugar cane under the strong heat of the sun with billhooks. Billhooks have a thick blade which is hooked at the end to protect the blade from becoming blunt if dropped on the ground. The blade at the other end was usually embedded in a wooden handle. Chopping the sugar cane from the beginning of the day to the end hurt the back and wore out their arms. They had to keep going or the overseer would use a backripper on them. The backripper was an instrument of torture and was used to tear into the backs of slaves, sometimes a form of punishment, sometimes at the whim of the overseer. What hope did the slaves have? Working all day and being tortured frequently. The little girls were afraid of growing older for fear of being raped by the white men on the plantation.Moa joined the rebelli0n that started on Easter Sunday with slaves lying low at first, with the goal of killing all the white men with billhooks. Violence through killing, fear of being killed, courage to take action and pride that they did. It took courage for them to do this but when you read the book, you think what other alternative did they have.I received this Advanced Cooy from the publishers as a win in a FirstRead Contest. My thoughts and feelings in this review are my own.

[lisan. · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought I knew about Tacky's Rebellion, but I had it mixed up with the Maroon Wars, because no one ever taught me the fascinating history of rebellions among enslaved people (or close to enslaved people) of the Americas. Reading this book was an amazing look into history, partly because I learned of Tacky's courage and vision of a better life than one lived in the brutality of the enslaver's whims, and partly because it was written in Jamaican patois, so I felt like I was really in the character's lives. This book doesn't go into much historical detail, but very much stays in the emotions of 14 year old Moa who joins the rebellion, despite opposition from his father. The book returns to this theme throughout: would you rather carry on, knowing that at least you know the terrible things in your life, or do you fight against the injustices, knowing that you may lose your life? Moa's answer to himself is pretty clear, but he and other character's acknowledge his father's fear for his only son, and fear for himself.This is a violent book, but it is also a book about friendship, loyalty, and the frustrations of a people that can no longer take the brutality and injustice of their lives. In other words, it is a perfect read for kids watching the news cycle in 2020. The rebellions of early Americans are rebellions still echoing in our streets more than 350 years later.