Pocket Pirates 1 – The Great Cheese Robbery

Chris Mould's The Great Cheese Robbery is the first Pocket Pirates book, a funny, tiny-sized adventure for 8 year olds about a pirate crew whose home is a little ship inside a glass bottle.

What happens

The bottle sits on a dusty shelf in an old junk shop. When nobody's looking, out come Button the ship's boy, his best friend Lily, the snoozy Captain Crabsticks and Old Uncle Noggin, who can't stop telling stories. They're about two inches high.

Then the mice who live behind the skirting board sneak up while the crew are asleep and carry off Jones, their cat, in a sack. They leave a ransom note. It's a scratchy drawing of cheese.

And everyone knows where cheese lives. Behind a huge white door, in a land of endless frost and ice. They call it Fridge.

The best bit is how an ordinary shop and kitchen turn into a huge, dangerous world. The crew get down from their shelf in a lift made from a musical box and a length of cotton. An army of woodlice swarms over their breakfast. Button and Lily stow away in a tub of margarine (very slimy), while the Captain and Uncle Noggin end up riding in a tin of dog food (even worse). You'll never look at the back of your fridge the same way again!

The characters are great fun. Button is desperate for an adventure, even though Lily warns him to be careful what he wishes for. The Captain says "Tally-ho!" a lot. Uncle Noggin always has a tale ready about the time he nearly came to a sticky end, usually at the worst possible moment.

There are a few baddies to keep things exciting (a hungry house spider, a slobbery dog called Doyle and those sneaky mice), but it's never too scary. It's more giggly than frightening.

It's a lovely one for a reader who's moving on to longer stories but still likes things to move fast. It works really well read aloud too, with all those pirate voices to do.

What to read next

If they want more of the crew, The Great Drain Escape finds them hungry again with the dog's basket blocking their way down, and Button making a promise with his fingers crossed behind his back.