Cornelia Funke, author
Kerstin Meyer, illustrator
New York: Scholastic, 2003
30 pp.
Age: 5+
Interests: pirates, strong girls, ocean, boats
Also by this author: Inkheart Trilogy, Picturebooks: The Princess Knight, The Wildest Brother, Princess PigstyCaptain Firebeard and his fearsome crew terrorize the seas at will… until they make the mistake of kidnapping a lone girl one her way to her grandmother’s house. She refuses to tell them her parents’ names, but insists that if the Captain heard her mother’s name he’d cry like a baby. She is put to work doing all the menial labour they can find for her, but she is secretly dropping bottles with notes inside into the ocean. When her mother, Barbarous Bertha, finally sails to her rescue, with her even-more-fearsome pirate crew, Captain Firebeard comes to rue the day he ever set eyes on little Molly. Bertha throws her darling Molly high into the air as the ladies swarm the ship. Firebeard himself is put to work polishing Bertha’s boots, and Molly is finally able to go off to visit her grandmother.
Plucky little Molly, all alone in a little sailboat, stands up to the entire pirate crew and defies Captain Firebeard with great style. And the sight of Bertha, wild-eyed and even wilder-haired, with her terrifying crew of female pirates, is worth the price of admission alone.
A rollicking adventure with an admirable heroine and an exciting finish, amid much brandishing of cutlasses and drinking of rum.
Rarest Kind of Best 