Pirate Girl

Captain Firebeard is a notorious pirate. With his horrible crew (Morgan O’Meany, Cutlass Tom, Bill the Bald et al) he attacks and robs the ships they come across ‘but one day Firebeard robbed a ship that he should have left well alone…’ On board is a little girl called Molly, on her way to see her granny. Kidnapped and held to ransom, Molly refuses to reveal her parents’ names and address much to Firebeard’s fury. He sets her to work scrubbing the deck and peeling potatoes but while the pirates are carousing at night Molly throws messages in bottles into the sea. When another sail then appears on the horizon, Captain Firebeard is in for a surprise… Chantal Wright’s vigorous translation from the German reads seamlessly and does credit to Funke’s amusing text with its surprise denouement. Meyer uses angles and horizons consummately to suggest the swell of the sea while her fluent line evokes character, drama and humour with a satisfying deftness.