Skye Cooley

So I know there isn't a ton of teenagers (or adults) who read middle grade fiction and I just have to say...they are really missing out. Not only are middle grade books clean and fun to read, the book Hook's Revenge by Heidi Schulz is in this category.

Hook's Revenge is the tale of Jocelyn Hook, the daughter of the feared and famous Captain Hook from the timeless tale of Peter Pan. She dreams and longs to sail the seas as a pirate, despite the well meaning and failed attempts of her grandfather and Headmistress Eliza Crumb-Biddlecomb of Miss Eliza Crumb-Biddlecomb's Finishing School for Young Ladies. Her adventurous spirit is frowned upon by many, save for the errand boy she unintentionally befriends named Roger with an appropriately "Jolly" personality. Together the two twelve year olds dream of adventures filled with pirates, treasures, sword fights and a poison or two. At least until Roger is banished.

Upset over Roger's banishment from the school's immense grounds and the fact that she is about to be fitted for a corset she would be forced to wear on her visit back home (She has already decided she will never wear a corset), Jocelyn decides to try to run away. This task is made much easier by the arrival of a giant talking crow named Edgar. Something else to love the author for. Edgar brings with him a letter for her from her father. It is half letter, half will, for the wonderfully wicked Captain Hook had finally been caught by the scaly stalker-the Tick tock Croc. He gives Jocelyn more of a task than an inheritance. Kill the crocodile. Kill the beast that he lived his life in fear of. And Jocelyn is not one to back down from the task. Edgar the Crow is kind enough to take the girl to Neverland where with the help of sweet and slightly cuckoo Smee builds the happiest and rather dimwitted pirate crew that Neverland has ever seen to accomplish the task set before her.

Along the way she give the island indians a lesson in dinner manners to save her life, is thrown off kilter by the newest addition to Peter Pan's Lost Boys whose leader she finds is a waste of time arguing with, and nearly becomes a fairy. All of these adventures are made much more humorous by the narrator's sarcastic and 110% done attitude, who's life sounds like it would be a book of its own.

All in all I cannot recommend Hook's Revenge enough. Anybody and everybody should read this, regardless of age or taste in books. It's an absolute delight to read and one you don't want to end. Hence the reason I want to get the sequel as soon as possible. Peter Pan spin offs can be difficult, but Heidi Schulz did it so well, J.M Barrie himself would wish he had written like this.