This is a great story about Captain Hook’s daughter Jocelyn and a few of her adventures. A very well written story that will keep the reader wanting to know more about Neverland and the characters from the Peter Pan books.

I'll admit right from the start that I was really disappointed when the rights to J.M. Barrie's <em>Peter Pan</em> finally expired and suddenly there were a lot (in my opinion) of books set in the Pan universe. There are some stories that lend themselves to further adventures with additional characters and there are other stories that should probably just remain 'sacred' and left alone.

So why did I request and read this book? The Disney company certainly has a stake in maintaining the Pan series and 'doing it right' since their animated film remains pretty iconic, so if I was going to read any new Pan story, going through Disney publishing seemed the safest route.

In <em>The Pirate Code</em> (which is the second book in the Hook's Revenge series by Heidi Schulz), the story revolves around Jocelyn Hook, the daughter of the (in)famous Captain Hook who squared off against Peter Pan. She has taken after her father and commands her own the crew pirates (including Smee and Starkey). She decides to search for her father's fortune, which should be pretty easy since he left her a map, but Jocelyn discovers that being a pirate commander is challenging work (which includes fighting off other pirates), and that just because she has a map doesn't mean understanding and following it will be easy.

I liked that this story wasn't about Peter Pan or Wendy or any of the 'obvious' heroes from Barrie's story, but that we could still recognize Neverland through some of the locations, situations, and supporting characters. This definitely made the read more enjoyable for me. It is, of course, a little bit brilliant to feature a young girl in a strong role. The Peter Pan tale will bring in a number of readers, likely many of them young boys, but the strong girl will hopefully bring new readers into Neverland.

And I also liked the character of Jocelyn. Strong, driven, but young and flawed. She's nothing like her buffoonish father, and she's a lot like him at the same time.

What I didn't care for was that this was set in Neverland at all. Really, there's nothing here that couldn't have been set in its own unique world. But we're clearly trying to draw on the Peter Pan/Neverland names.

I'm also not a fan of romanticizing villains in children's literature. Pirates are not cute and clumsy characters and we do a disservice to paint them as such.

While I enjoyed the character of Jocelyn (despite being a pirate), I felt the book lacked a tight focus. The narrative asides really took me out of the story rather than making things clearer.

All things considered, this was a pretty average read. Hard to recommend but just as hard to dissuade anyone from reading it.

Looking for a good book? Hook's Revenge: The Pirate Code by Heidi Schulz is a book set in Neverland but featuring the daughter of Captain Hook, now commanding her own pirate crew. The development of a strong female in a known setting makes this exciting, but the telling of the story doesn't always live up to that excitement.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Much as I loved book 1, I have a very picky palate when it comes to middle grade, so I haven't finished this one and don't think I will.

The Neverland crocodile met his end at the hands of Jocelyn Hook. Although she delivered Hooks Revenge, Jocelyn is no ordinary pirate. She has no desire to steal from others but the ship's stock is running low so she will need to find her father's treasure soon. Unfortunately, Pan might be her best source of information and he is not likely to help her without a compelling reason. When she kidnaps his current mother, Evie, she senses something familiar about her and begins to discover that their lives are eternally intwined. Fortunately, her ever faithful friend, Roger, can be counted on to help her navigate the murky waters of her past, present, future and the ever shifting "whens" of the Neverland.

I did not read the first book in this series but plan to go back to discover how this whole adventure started. In spite of that, Schulz does a great job of bringing the reader up to speed so I never felt lost. There were so many fantastic life lessons in this tale and great illustrations. There was betrayal in trusting someone not worthy and the heartbreak of not trusting someone who had earned trust. It was a story about unending love and the strength of true friendship. I really enjoyed the concepts of shifting time and a parallel universe for these characters. I have already recommended it to my 11 year old as a fun and fast moving story that I know she will enjoy.

This series points out some frankly disturbing elements in the original Peter Pan story, particularly as relates to Peter himself. Shulz's Pan is not particularly likeable. Not evil, exactly, just foolish and self centered. This volume adds new elements to both Jocelyn and Neverland, my favorite being that the magic of Neverland makes people forget so that they lose their home, themselves, and stop aging. The new characters are engaging and have a reasonable level of complexity. Funny and adventurous.

Rambunctious and Breezy

This is an odd but oddly appealing book. Our heroine is Jocelyn Hook, daughter of the Captain Hook of Peter Pan fame. She is now captain of her own ship, has avenged her family honor against the Neverland crocodile, and is on a quest to find her father's legendary treasure.

Part of the odd feeling is that Hook is now a hero, his crew, (Smee and the gang), is now Jocelyn's crew, and the good guys and bad guys are a bit upside down. That's not that new, I guess. There have been at least a dozen Peter Pan and Neverland reimaginings published just within the past year, and Hook comes off better in almost all of them.

But the tone here is a bit odd too. Sometimes Jocelyn is "nice" and gushy. Sometimes she's a pirate captain. Sometimes she's resolute and sometimes she's naive and indecisive. She orders the crew around, but she's also intimidated by them. At first I struggled with the changes in tone, but once I got used to it I realized that this vacillation made Jocelyn interesting and kept the tale from just being a by-the-numbers pirate treasure hunt story. Indeed, I also began to appreciate that the author hadn't simply "appropriated" the Hook name, (the way people throw "Sherlock Holmes" around). There's a real effort to tie this adventure into what we all know and remember of Peter Pan and Neverland, and to expand instead of just cash in on the Pan franchise.

It helps that Jocelyn gets a fresh group of companions. If she was stuck with Tinkerbell and Peter Pan and the other original characters, well this might have felt more like a knock-off. But here we get a better sidekick, a better mischievous fairy, a new bad guy, and a quest that isn't solely centered on Neverland. Doing that was a gutsy call by the author, but it's one of the things that kept me interested.

So, we get a layered and interesting heroine who commands the stage, a nice adventure, brisk story-telling, some humorous narration, and high energy. That's all good by me.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)