View source for Swashbuckle School (Scarlet Silver) by Sarah McConnell and Lucy Courtenay

{{infobox1
|title=Swashbuckle School (Scarlet Silver)
|author=Sarah McConnell and Lucy Courtenay 
|reviewer=Jo Heffer
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Scarlett Silver and her rather useless family have only recently become pirates but they soon discover that being a pirate is trickier than they first thought. They decide that it is time to go back to school and start to learn the basics of piracy. But is Swashbukle School really the best place to learn?
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=96
|publisher=Hodder Children's Books
|date=January 2010
|isbn=978-0340959671 
|cover=0340959673
|aznuk=0340959673
|aznus=0340959673
}}

Young Scarlet Silver had always wanted to be a pirate and eventually her wish came true when she and her family took to the high seas in their pirate ship, 55 Ocean Drive. The problem was though that neither Scarlet nor anyone else in the family knew how to be a pirate and they soon discovered that it was quite a tricky business. Scarlet became the self appointed captain and did her best but her parents, brother Cedric, grandfather and his mate One Eyed Jake formed a pretty inept crew. This resulted in them all soon falling foul to hostile pirate ships and narrowly escaping death and disaster! 

After a narrow escape, Scarlet decides that they must enrol in pirate school and as luck would have it she discovers a leaflet advertising Swashbuckle School which is run by Captain Gilbert Gauntlet. He is unfortunately a fraud though and treats them as slaves while he lives the high life on his luxury yacht. The only option is to attempt an escape especially when Scarlet realises that there is treasure to be found on the high seas. The question is though; do they have the brains between them to foil Gilbert Gauntlet and to find the treasure? 

In this highly entertaining book lots of things happen that will grab a child's attention from the very start. With such a motley crew, things often go wrong and the consequences are often very funny. Many silly things occur that are very likely to appeal to a child's sense of humour, particularly when 'farting fruit bats' are mentioned! My daughters certainly laughed at those bits anyway. 

This is a lovely little adventure that will surely capture young children's imaginations. Also, Scarlet Silver makes a great central character and we particularly feel for her when she despairs of her more than useless family. All of the characters are very funny and appealing. I'm sure children will love them all and for that reasons they will probably be delighted to discover that there are five other books all featuring the same characters. 

The book has just less than one hundred pages and these are broken up into manageable sized chapters. This, along with the accessible language and the fun illustrations make this an ideal book for children who have just begun to master reading. I think that the short chapters are particularly important as it means that they can read in manageable chunks. My daughter likes to read a chapter a night while gaining the sense of an ongoing story. 

Swashbuckle School is the first title in a series of six books all written by Sarah McConnell and illustrated by Lucy Courtnay so if they enjoy this there are plenty more to look out for to read about Scarlet's further adventures. If you do read all six books, there is a 'find the treasure' competition where if readers discover the pages where there is hidden treasure in each book, they could win a pirate booty bag. My daughter definitely wants to read the other books now!

If your child likes the sound of this, they may well enjoy [[The Extremely Very Scrambled Up World of Little Doogs: Playing the Road Trip Game by Fiona Cummings and Ian Sanders]].

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[[Category: Sarah McConnell]]
[[Category: Lucy Courtenay]]