From Publishers Weekly
Spurred on by their dreams of becoming real live pirates, Lionel Wafer and the rest of the staff of Ye Olde Pyratte Shippe Tea Shoppe weigh anchor for the Thousand Islands in order to kidnap wealthy inventor Humbert Cash-Cash and steal his legendary diamond doorknob. After near-fatal encounters with a witch and her man-eating firedrake husband, the pirates take time out to learn how to read at the villainous Dr. Silkwood's Academy. But the lure of the high seas proves irresistible, and the gang sets sail once again--accompanied by a handful of orphans, an amnesiac and their tough but kind-hearted teacher. Action and invention abound here, perhaps in excess; while the writing, attempting a high level of vivacity, verges instead on the glib. Particularly grating are the text's mock-scholarly footnotes and coy bits of dialogue: "It's hard on a Doctor of Literature . . . when her reading lessons are interrupted by the police." This sort of brittle whimsy is not for all tastes; still, the combination of goofy, good-natured humor, cartoony characters and a convoluted mystery bears some resemblance to Roald Dahl's work, and is likely to appeal to fans of Ellen Raskin's The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel). Ages 9-12.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-- A pi ece de r esistance by an orchestrator of breathlessly nonstop nonsense, farrago, and farce. Returning to the great city of Hookywalker, setting of The Blood and Thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak (McElderry, 1989), readers meet young Lionel Wafer. Alas for Lionel; he is dissatisfied with living in rule-and-regulation-ridden real life. In his heart he dreams of being a pirate. So do all of the other people who work with him at his retired uncle's tea shop. A great believer in free will, he cuts the cable that binds the tea shop/ship to a wharf, rechristens the craft the Sinful Sausage and, accompanied by a delightfully dysfunctional crew, sets sail in search of fortune and adventure. This band of bumptious buccaneers finds misfortune, muddle, and misadventure, much of it deriving from the fact that none of them can read. However, they soon repair to Dr. Silkweed's Academy, located between a supermarket and a "Rent-a-Librarian" business. To share more will be to spoil readers' pleasure in unraveling a fiendishly convoluted plot, chockablock with mistaken identity, riotous incident, and madcap merriment. Comic devices are crowded aboard: jokes, one-liners, endless alliteration, puns, hyperbole, funny names, slapstick, and so forth. With Mahy at the helm, the Sinful Sausage skims across the wildest waves, driven by the hurricane gale of her readers' unremitting laughter. --Michael Cart, formerly at Beverly Hills Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
