The Very Nearly Honourable League of Pirates: Magic Marks The Spot
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. But the Very Nearly Honourable League of Pirates rejects Hilary's application because she's a girl, and her father ships her off to Miss Pimm's Finishing School for Delicate Ladies instead.
Expected to wear woollen dresses (petticoats not provided) and enthusiastically throw herself into activities such as Viennese Waltzing for the Eager Novice, Miss Pimm's is every bit as horrid as Hilary feared. However, a true pirate never lets dire circumstances stand in her way, and after a mostly dreadful first week, Hilary escapes and applies for a job with a freelance pirate known as the Terror of the Southlands. He offers her a place on his misfit crew, on one condition: she must find the famous treasure that's rumoured to contain most of the kingdom's lost magic. Hilary soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous quest, and on the run from her school governess and the most villainous pirate on the high seas!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
There's merriment and intrigue on the high seas in this debut novel, which sets the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series off to a promising start. Carlson's characters are as memorable as they are entertaining, beginning with headstrong Hilary Westfield, the daughter of a pompous admiral. Hilary longs to be a pirate but is sent to finishing school, where embroidery, etiquette, and fainting are mainstays of the curriculum; accompanying her is a wisecracking gargoyle carved centuries before by an enchantress. Hilary runs away from school to join the crew of a "freelance" pirate, Jasper Fletcher, which also includes her former governess, an arrogant boy named Oliver, and the gargoyle, who serves as the ship's figurehead (when Hilary tells him he needn't serve that function, he replies, "And let some no-good mermaid get the job? I think not!"). A race to uncover long-lost magical treasure pits Hilary against her father, and several unforeseen plot zigzags (along with humorous letters, newspaper clippings, and guidebook excerpts) keep the novel on a delightfully screwy course. Ages 8 12.
