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Frank Lampard's Frankie vs the Pirate Pillagers is a football adventure for 6 year olds in which one lucky kick sends a boy, two friends and a dog onto a pirate ship.
Frankie loves football more than anything. On the last day of the fair he spends the last of his pocket money at a funny little stall and wins a scuffed, half-flat ball from a man with caterpillar eyebrows.
In the park, he volleys it past his friend Charlie into a climbing frame shaped like a ship. The ball vanishes. A swirl of colours appears where the goal was. And Frankie, Charlie, Louise and Max the dog go whooshing down a rainbow slide.
They land on the deck of a real pirate ship. There's a captain with a wooden leg, an enormous pirate with a hook, a girl called Scarlet and a parrot who plays in goal. Max can suddenly talk. And the losing team gets left behind on a desert island!
The match is brilliant fun. The goal is the crow's nest, a cannon fires to start each game, and at one point a crowd of sharks passes the ball about. Who wouldn't want to see that?
The pirates cheat, of course. They shove, they call a hook a hand and they tip the whole ship sideways. Frankie's answer is to play fair and play as a team (with a little help from a well-aimed dog biscuit).
Charlie is a great sidekick. He never takes off his goalie gloves and his motto is "Always ready", which everybody has heard a gazillion times. Louise chips in a lovely goal of her own.
It's short and it moves fast, with lots of action and nothing too scary. It's the first of the Frankie adventures, and it ends with a clue that the fantasy league hasn't finished with them yet.
One small thing to know. This is the American edition, so the game is called "soccer", Frankie's mum is "Mom" and money comes in cents. Most children won't mind a bit, but a keen young football fan might have something to say about it!
If they're after another football-mad boy who has been using the family dog as a goalkeeper, try Calum's New Team. Calum has just moved town, his new garden is far too small and his first kickabout at school has to be played in clunky school shoes.
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