The Boy Who Fell From The Mayflower

The Boy Who Fell From The Mayflower (Or John Howland’s Good Fortune) is a beautifully illustrated children’s book that tells the imagined story of a real-life passenger aboard the pioneering ship.

John Howland was a teenager in 1620 when he sailed to America as an indentured servant. His story and the Mayflower’s dramatic voyage from Plymouth is vividly brought to life by writer and illustrator P.J. Lynch.

It shows a young, honest perspective to a pivotal moment in American history in this powerful and vividly illustrated story of the Pilgrims.

At a young age, John Howland learned what it meant to take advantage of an opportunity. Leaving the docks of London on the Mayflower as a servant to Pilgrim John Carver, John little knew that he was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. By his good fortune, John survived falling overboard on the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and he earned his keep ashore by helping to scout a safe harbour and landing site for his bedraggled and ill shipmates.

Would his luck continue to hold amid the dangers and adversity of the Pilgrims’ lives in New England? In the first book he has both written and illustrated, P.J. Lynch tells a personal story of the Mayflower’s journey with precise and exquisite detail, from the light on the froth of a breaking wave to the immediate, questioning voice of a young man in a new world.

The Boy Who Fell From The Mayflower book

P.J. Lynch's remarkable artwork ranges from luminous seascapes to dark and emotional scenes of sickness and death among the Pilgrims. This young adult point of view of the voyage of the Mayflower and settling of Plymouth is fresh and full of adventure.

To explore more of the Mayflower story and the places its passengers came from explore our Visit section.

View more of the images from the book below. Images are copyright © 2015 P J Lynch. From The Boy Who Fell off the Mayflower by P J Lynch. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ www.walker.co.uk