Karen Hesse didn't repeat Out of the Dust here. That was a searing story, even though its supposed poetic style was merely flowery prose with imaginative line breaks. I picked this up at the library yesterday on the strength of her Newbery and read it today mostly while wrapped in a flimsy gown with a sheet over me waiting for doctors to show, not the kind of atmostphere for Prague, which was my other book. Its primary interest for me was that William Bligh, who would ten years later command the Bounty, sailed with Captain Cook on his third and last voyage. This Cook's first, with Mr. Banks the botanist (for whom Botany Bay is named and to whom Bligh felt obliged for his commission).
There was a stowaway on the Endeavor; this book is his story, except it's not. There is no character development, not much character at all. I think Hesse got hold of Cook's and Banks's logs and journals, summarized and simplified them for a young audience, and called it the stowaway's diary.