Speaking of pirates, one of the things that the great Margaret Mahy can do is play with the tropes of children’s books, such as (in this case) the pirate attack. The Hero of Tingleberries, Tuckertubs and Telephones is, er, forgotten his name, don’t have the book in front of me, anyway, he’s a young teenager who lives on an island with his grandmother, a retired police detective known for capturing pirates.
I won’t say that you can pretty much guess what happens from there, because you can’t, as Ms. Mahy has a wonderful madness that makes her books delightfully unpredictable, but you can guess more ore less what sort of thing happens from there. There will be pirates. There will be narrow escapes. There will be grandmotherly advice remembered in a timely fashion. There will be, er, executive pirates with mobile phones and albatross rescues and soppy proposals and, well, really, this is just about the best book ever, and you should read it.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.