The Accidental Stowaway
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
In this rollicking transatlantic romp set in 1910, a plucky girl named Patch accidentally stows away on a glamorous steamship, finding herself in the midst of a mystery. Twelve-year-old Patch hasn’t found a real home yet, despite being passed like a package from one distant relative to the next. When she runs up the gangway of the massive steamship RMS Glorious, she isn’t planning to hang around. But it’s too late—the ship is setting sail! Patch has become an accidental stowaway. Luckily, she’s fearless and resourceful and finds friends on board in both high and low places. But hiding from the stowaway-hunting chief steward becomes harder and harder. And to make matters worse, Patch’s new friends urgently need her help: it turns out that some passengers are not what they seem, and there’s a mystery that needs solving before they reach New York. Can Patch protect her friends and stop some dastardly criminals? And will she find a home at last, or will the excitement of life on the move keep calling her name? The elegant allure of Titanic-era steamships meets madcap escapades as our intrepid heroine finds adventure on every deck.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When the eponymous protagonist learns of a mystery that needs solving aboard a luxury liner, it's all hands on deck in this bustling historical tale by previous collaborators Eagle and Rioux (The Pear Affair). Twelve-year-old Patch often feels like "the kind of parcel that no one wants to receive." Since she was born, she's lived with her father in Kensington, her aunt in Surrey, her grandmother in Northumberland, her uncle in Essex, and with a second cousin twice removed in Islington. Deemed "unmanageable" by the cousin, Patch is next sent to the Liverpool Institute High School for Girls, where she will be cared for by a family friend in the school's employ. But when she arrives at the seaside institution, Patch's new guardian is away. Instead, Patch encounters young American deckhand Turo, on shore leave from cruise ship the RMS Glorious, and she soon finds herself heading unceremoniously to sea as an accidental stowaway. Aboard, she befriends Lilian, a young heiress who offers to help Patch blend in among wealthy patrons sailing to America—until the trio become embroiled in a ship-wide conspiracy. The larger-than-life setting provides ample opportunity for swashbuckling adventures whose stakes, while never too high, are always exciting. Illustrations portray the protagonists with pale skin. Ages 8–12.
