The Long-Lost Secret Diary of the World's Worst Pirate

This is a good, fairly easy to read book. It has the adventure of a pirate story, but is much more realistic about what a real pirate was like. It also has a lot of information about the reality of pirates in sidebars. But it still manages to be fun.

UGH, this story was adorable!
The beginning started out very Pirates of the Caribbean-ey-ish (I know that's not a word)
A cute tale full of twists and turns! A young boy finds his boat being taken over by Pirates. Eager for a more exciting life, he hides away in the boat until he is found by one of them. From there, he attempts to try and participate in the activities on board, which don't fare so well for him.
In the end, the crew ends up being captured and he attempts and succeeds a daring escape with his newly found pirate friend Georgie. A great ending!

I love the writing style, the book flowed really well and was humorous. The characters were fun and I especially loved the little facts added in here and there that went into depth about traditional pirates actions. Even as an adult, I was able to learn some new things!
So pleased with this book!

An Intriguing and Unique Tone

Hapless. Our hero is hapless, and as I read this I realized that almost no one writes children's books that combine silly fantasy with realistic behavior. Allow me to explain.

The setup is straightforward. When young Tom's ship is attacked by pirates everyone is taken from the ship and set adrift. Except for Tom, who hides in the cargo bay, and ends up sailing with the pirates who have taken over the ship. When he's discovered, Tom signs on as a new member of the pirate crew and resolves to live out his dreams of searching for pirate treasure and plunder. Now, this setup could lend itself to very funny hijinks, or a ripping adventure tale, (think "Treasure Island"), or a cartoony sort of fantasy adventure, or something similar that you've probably read before.

But, at every turn we get a twist, a surprise, and an unexpected tone. Tom isn't terribly upset to be separated from his parents and seems rather indifferent to their fates. Tom has no problem signing on with the pirates, although he's rather disappointed in how normal and sort of boring they are. He tries his hand at various pirate skills, (setting sail, working the cannon, carpenter's mate), and isn't very good at much of anything. He's a poor plunderer and not much at fighting. At every step we have an odd collision of the fiction/fantasy plot and the practical problems a kid would have if the plot were actually really happening. And we keep switching back and forth between funsy pirate plotting and reality, (Tom holds the bucket to catch the fractured foot that the carpenter saws off of an injured crew member).

So, you end up with an unusual middle view - it's as though you took an adult pirate adventure and wrote it down and sillied it up a bit to be told through the eyes of a kid, or you took a silly kid fantasy and wrote it up and added a dose of realism. (The "Get Real" factoid boxes that elaborate on the historical accuracy of the action enhances that funny/real whipsaw effect).

Our narrator is Tom, who is writing about his experiences in his diary. He's sort of deadpan, but often his tone changes from carefree and childish to serious and perceptive, so again we get that same sort of whipsaw effect. He messes up a lot, but he's game and he learns from his errors, so you end up with a weirdly appealing mashup of a Dahl/Walliams/Dickens/Stevenson hero.

My sense of this book was all over the place, but I finally came down on the plus side mostly because of its fresh, unusual and idiosyncratic approach. I could see a young reader with an adventurous taste in styles getting into this book, (and the other Collins books), and it might be just the thing to grab the attention of a reader who wavers between fiction and non-fiction. A really interesting find.

(Please note that I received a free advance 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.)

This well illustrated book will certainly appeal to a young audience. It is a cleverly crafted look at the hardships sailors endured in the time of sailing merchant ships. Told through the eyes of Thomas, a youngster who is so sure that the life of a pirate is the best thing ever, that is until he becomes one. There is a great glossary and lots of sailing terms thrown around “Avast ye” “Heave to” “Shiver me timbers”! Lessons to be taught and to be learned and Thomas is always in the middle of everything.

The problem I had with this book is when you put aside the humor; many of the choices Thomas makes are neither admirable nor commendable.

Thank you NetGalley and Jolly Fish Press for an ARC.