Pirates! Magic! Treasure! A gargoyle?!
Caroline Carlson's funny tween novel The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot is perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events and Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society.
Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She can tread water for thirty-seven minutes. She can tie a knot faster than a fleet of sailors, and she already owns a rather pointy sword.
There's only one problem: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates refuses to let any girl join their ranks of scourges and scallywags.
But Hilary is not the kind of girl to take no for answer. To escape a life of petticoats and politeness at her stuffy finishing school, Hilary sets out in search of her own seaworthy adventure, where she gets swept up in a madcap quest involving a map without an X, a magical treasure that likely doesn't exist, a talking gargoyle, a crew of misfit scallywags, and the most treacherous--and unexpected--villain on the High Seas.
Written with uproarious wit and an inviting storyteller tone, the first book in Caroline Carlson's quirky seafaring series is a piratical tale like no other.
About the Author :
Caroline Carlson is the author of the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series and The World's Greatest Detective. She holds an MFA in writing for children from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives with her family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can visit her online at www.carolinecarlsonbooks.com.
Katherine Kellgren (1969-2018), narrator and actress, appeared onstage in London, New York, and Frankfurt, including in the role of Laura in a regional production of The Glass Menagerie and appearances on Comedy Central. In recognition of her mastery of audiobook narration, she received many honors, including the prestigious Audie Awards, with four for best female narrator; the Odyssey Award; Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award; dozens of AudioFile magazine Earphones Awards; an AudioFile Golden Voice Award; Booklist Voice of Choice award; and acclaim from press and listener reviews.
Review :
"A whimsical, swashbuckling romp into a deeply imaginative world; Carlson's novel is as plucky and clever as its heroine."
-- "Soman Chainani, New York Times bestselling author"
"Avast! Pirates, magic, girl hero, and a gargoyle sidekick? YES!! Magic Marks the Spot is an amazing debut, a funny, rollicking adventure featuring a take-no-prisoners heroine and a cast of colorful characters. I eagerly look forward to the next book."
-- "Sarah Prineas, author of the Magic Thief series and the Summerlands series"
"Carlson's debut, the first in the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series, delivers all the expected swashbuckling tropes--treasure maps, invisible ink, sword fights, and treacherous villains--and then cleverly upends them by adding a talking gargoyle, a governess determined to keep everything shipshape, and a truly terrible dad. Interspersed between chapters are humorous letters, guidebook extracts, and newspaper articles that offer alternative perspectives to the main narrative...Give this to fans of Anna Fienberg's Horrendo's Curse, another gender-bending pirate yarn."
-- "Booklist"
"There's merriment and intrigue on the high seas in this debut novel...Carlson's characters are as memorable as they are entertaining."
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"
"This is a drawing-room comedy set on the high seas. The book is deliciously feminist but wears its politics lightly. Relationships are sweet and beautifully drawn, there is at least one laugh per page, and I quite enjoyed the notion of entrenched pirate bureaucracy."
-- "New York Times Book Review"
"Will the magic fall into the wrong hands? Will Hilary and Charlie be able to rescue their friends from the dungeons into which they have been mistakenly tossed? In the end, no one is who they seem...Make[s] for entertaining reading, and the whole package is a silly, rollicking good time."
-- "School Library Journal"
