Captain Pug: The Dog Who Sailed the Seas

Laura James's Captain Pug: The Dog Who Sailed the Seas is a sweet, giggly adventure for 6 year olds about a greedy little pug who is made a captain and isn't at all sure about water.

What happens

Pug lives at No. 10, The Crescent with Lady Miranda, who adores him. They have jam tarts for breakfast in bed. (Pug's absolute favourite.)

Today Lady Miranda has a birthday party at the boating lake. She's decided this is a seafaring adventure, so Pug gets a sailor suit and a promotion. He's a captain now!

Pug has worries. He walks round puddles. He isn't keen on bath time. And he's never even seen the sea.

Then his nose finds an unattended picnic hamper. He only climbs in to check for jam tarts (helpfully, one small bite of everything). By the time he looks up, the hamper is on a tour bus, and Lady Miranda is screaming "Follow that bus!"

Pug makes a plan. If he becomes a FAMOUS captain, surely Lady Miranda will hear about him and find him again? So off he goes. He ends up in a rowing race, barking so fast the rowers row in time with him, until he spots an ice-cream van. He wobbles along a plank on to a canal boat for a cream tea. He even goes out sailing with a girl called Lottie.

Meanwhile Lady Miranda sets off after him in a sedan chair carried by her two running footmen, who wear frilly cuffs and buckled shoes and are not having the best day.

It's a lovely read-aloud. You get Pug's thoughts as he goes ("Crumbs, thought Pug") and his priorities are always food first, bravery second. Grown-ups will enjoy Lady Miranda refusing to pedal a pedalo herself.

His fear of water is handled so gently. When Pug is brave, there's usually food involved. A cream tea gets him across one very wobbly plank! If you've got a little one who's nervous about swimming, this might even help.

The whole story is short enough for one or two sittings, and it ends right back home by the fire.

What to read next

If they love Pug, Laura James also wrote Mystery on the Ostrich Express, where a very clever flamingo detective and his friend Gilbert catch a steam train for a holiday by the sea.