Alex Neptune – Dragon Thief

David Owen's Dragon Thief is a funny seaside adventure for 9 year olds about a boy the sea seems to have a grudge against.

What happens

Alex Neptune lives in Haven Bay, and he's terrified of the water. Every time he goes near it, a wave or a current or a tangle of seaweed has a go at drowning him. Everybody says it's bad luck. Alex isn't so sure.

The bay is filthy these days too. It's full of litter and oil and dead fish, and the tourists have stopped coming. Everyone in town blames the ugly concrete building on the shore that the mayor let someone put up.

Then his friend Anil staggers up the beach with an octopus stuck to his face.

She's blue, she changes colour when she's cross and she is VERY bossy. She wants Alex to follow a strange green glow up the hill to the old aquarium that closed years ago. What's hiding in the empty dolphin tank there is straight out of the town's oldest legend.

What makes it such fun is the gang. Zoey's inventions always explode, however carefully she builds them. Anil can't stop talking. There's a seagull called Pinch who steals people's buns, and four otters who stand on each other's backs to feed the thing in the tank.

The octopus is the star, though. At one point she squirts water at a guard until he has to rush off to the loo (Zoey approves).

It's a proper mix of jokes and spooky bits. The empty aquarium at night is quite eerie, and there's a nasty mayor. The jokes come thick and fast in between. Alex is scared of nearly everything and goes anyway, which is exactly why you root for him.

There's a gentle message about looking after the sea as well, without it ever feeling like a lesson.

If you've got a reader who loves animals, gadgets and a mystery right on their doorstep, this is perfect. Who wouldn't want an octopus sidekick?

What to read next

For another boy who's been kept away from the water, Song of the Dolphin Boy is in the library too. Finn's dad has banned him from the sea completely, until the day he goes over the harbour wall.