I’ll admit bias before this review is even started as I am a wild, fawning fan of Cornelia Funke, even without all that lengthy Inkheart stuff.
The ship in this book is the Horrible Haddock, not to be confused with Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III from the How to Train Your Dragon series. I’m not really sure why all of a sudden Haddock are an evil fish, but there you have it.
The pirates of the Haddock are ruthless rogues, who go so far as to kidnap a little girl, Molly, in a rowboat and put her to work doing chores on their ship while they make a plan to ransom her to her parents. She’s a tough little cookie however and refuses to give the name and address of her parents. She engages in the seemingly futile task of writing messages in bottles to ask for rescue. No one is more surprised than the pirates when her mother does show up. A notorious pirate herself, Molly’s mother quickly saves her little girl and makes those pirates pay.
Great for: I like the message that mom will come to the rescue, it’s one that resonates with lots of children, and the manner in which it’s done allows mom to be a bit of a badass in the process. Also, who doesn’t like it when the girls beat the boys? All right fine, the boys probably don’t like it. But they have cooties anyway so who cares about them.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – Some pirates are bare chested. A pair of lady bloomers are visible below a dress.
Profanity – The pirates “curse” but we know not what they say.
Death, Violence and Gore – A few swords poking at people.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Pirates steal casks of rum which they later drink.
Frightening or Intense Things – Molly is in fact kidnapped by pirates who frequently threaten to feed her to the sharks.
How did I not know that you have this site, too?
My son just read Space Pirate Sardine and the Brainwashing Machine and he loved it. I’ve got the other Space Pirate Sardine books coming to the library for him.