The Pirate’s Curse

When the clever and fearless knight, Sir Stinky Socks sets out to rescue the writer of a message in a bottle, he, along with his cat and his horse, becomes a stowaway on ‘The Black Toenail’, a pirate ship manned by a motley crew and its hairy-scary Captain Burnt Beard. Bravely facing up to the captain, Sir Stinky Socks ensures that he and his friends are not thrown overboard, but stay to help onboard. This ruse works until a huge storm at sea forces Sir Stinky Socks to use his magic (horribly smelly) socks to fish. But no fish are caught; instead the clever knight lures a few magical mermaids, who very prettily calm the sea. There are other adventures, pirate tales ashore, a man-eating monster and a horrible curse, but Sir Stinky Socks manages to save the day by his discovery of the Captain Burnt Beard’s secret preference to baking over pirating. It’s a lovely twist, especially when we discover that the crew also prefers jobs like hairdressing and gardening to splicing the mainsail. But what about that monster still slavering over the poop deck? Well, filling up the monster with the Captains’ best bakery confectionary, thus keeping the monster at bay forever more, neatly solves that. This story has an enchanting denouement with its message about kindness and sweetness triumphing over violence, and could be used to great advantage in the classroom or at home. Excellent illustrations full of mainsails, great characters and plundering are drawn with such vivacity and action they make this book a colourful chuckle.