Pocket Pirates 3 – The Great Flytrap Disaster

Chris Mould's The Great Flytrap Disaster is a Pocket Pirates adventure for 8 year olds about a boiling summer, a greedy spider and a plant that eats things.

What happens

This is the third Pocket Pirates book. It's a scorcher in the old junk shop. The flies are everywhere. They've even eaten the crew's food (all except the cheese, which made them sick).

Worse still, Mr Dregby, the spider in the corner, is getting fat on flies, and his web is creeping closer and closer to the ship in a bottle. One morning he drops right onto the glass and starts wrapping silk round it.

Then the shop owner, Mr Tooey, plonks a strange new plant on the end of their shelf.

Button and Lily go out at night to find some supper, and Button spots the plant in a book. It's a Venus flytrap. By the time they head back to warn the others, it's too late. Button is caught in the web. Lily tumbles into a milk jug. And Captain Crabsticks and Uncle Noggin climb up the plant to look for them.

SHHHQUELLLUMP!

Can four tiny pirates get out of a web, a jug and a flytrap before morning? (Mr Dregby is planning to have one of them FOR breakfast.)

This is the best kind of silly. Uncle Noggin announces that he's trying to die in peace, then panics that the plant has eaten half of him (it hasn't). The Captain makes Jones the ship's cat captain, just in case. And an old story Uncle Noggin tells about a thirsty crow turns out to matter far more than anyone expects.

Mr Dregby makes a brilliant baddie, all politeness and six watching eyes. He even gives Button his shoes back, wrapped up like a parcel, just so he can warn him about next time. The close-ups of hairy legs and fangs might be a bit much for a child who really can't stand spiders, but everyone gets out in one piece.

It's a lovely one for reading together, with lots of noises to do in silly voices.

What to read next

If they want another night of trouble on the shelf, try The Great Drain Escape. This time the crew are so hungry that Button sneaks out of the shop to find food, and they all end up in the drains under the street.