by Richard Hugues
Quickie recap: The Bas-Thornton children survive some extreme weather in Jamaica only to be sent back to England by their parents. Not long after the boat departs, the parents receive a cable from the captain telling of the children's demise, but in truth, their adventure is just beginning - aboard a pirate ship, no less.
Quickie review: I didn't have high expectations for this book, so I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying and anticipating it. It is engaging, in parts quite swashbuckling as you might expect, but it's best when recounting the life of piracy according to a 12 year old girl. You'd be surprised.
Quickie recommendation: Surprisingly, yes.
1 comment:
I absolutely loved this book. I read it many years ago and have often reflected on it. Erica Emms said once that American fiction is the only fiction she knows where the passage into adulthood is achieved by having to go out and shoot the family pet. It seems to me that British fiction marks the passage into adulthood by having children betray an adult, as the children end up betraying the pirates. "The Go Between" is a similar novel and so is "The Greengage Summer". It seems the common theme is guilt which is what gets you tossed out of the childhood Eden.
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