Harry Pay the Pirate

This is a colourfully packaged, far-fetched, swashbuckling yarn. I read it, appropriately enough, on a deserted sandy beach but I reckon it would make a good read aloud book for Top Junior/Lower Middles in their and-locked classrooms. It has a wealth of incident which ensures a lively pace and a succession of colourful characters who should command attention, most notably the sinister Mr Shadow, who guides, we are never too sure how selflessly, the lively, slightly naive young hero of the title. A useful book to keep them listening.