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Jennifer Gray's Atticus Claw Goes Ashore is a silly seaside caper for 7 year olds about a message in a bottle and a ballroom full of pirates.
Atticus Grammaticus Cattypuss Claw used to be the world's greatest cat burglar. These days he's a police cat sergeant, and this morning that means litter-picking on the beach with the kittens from the cats' home.
One kitten, Thomas, is bored stiff. He wants an adventure! Atticus tells him adventures are dangerous, then deals with an old nappy by kicking it into the bin bag with his back legs (cats are very clean animals).
Buried in the sand is a green bottle with a scrap of paper inside. It's from someone called Fishhook Frank. When Mr Tucker reads it he goes red, then blue, then a colour Atticus thinks might be magenta.
Out comes the legend of the Casket of Desires. A greedy old woman, a mermaid who has to grant a wish every time she hears a certain rhyme, and sea creatures who hid her away for a thousand years. One of those creatures is the giant lobster that took Mr Tucker's leg!
Meanwhile Toffly Hall is hosting the World Beard-Jumper Competition. Mr Tucker has invited real pirates and laid on fancy-dress prizes, so Mrs Tucker will think they're in costume. How does a fisherman know so many pirates? Atticus starts to wonder. Your reader will probably get there first.
The best bit is Inspector Cheddar. A huge pirate dressed all in black storms the prize-giving, and the Inspector is sure he's part of the entertainment. He tugs the man's ponytail and pings his eye patch. You can almost hear children shouting at the page.
The villains get their own chapters too. Zenia Klob is selling melons in disguise, Ginger Biscuit is sulking because there's no rat for dinner, and the magpies get sold to two pirates who think they're parrots.
The baddies talk big. Ginger Biscuit says that next time he sees Atticus he's dead, and the magpies dream up some nasty revenge. A sword gets pointed at Inspector Cheddar as well. It's all cartoonish and played for laughs, but a very sensitive reader might want you close by for those pages.
This isn't the first Atticus Claw book. The story nods back to earlier adventures, and Atticus Claw Breaks the Law is where he first turns up in Littleton-on-Sea.
If the sea and a secret island are the parts they love, try The Mystery of Stormy Island. It's Jennifer Gray again, with a squad of crime-fighting chickens and an eagle owl hiding in the caves of a rocky island off the coast.
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