Read The Secrets of Droon 14 – Voyage of the Jaffa Wind free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Tony Abbott's Voyage of the Jaffa Wind is a Droon sea adventure for 7 year olds about a rescue mission for a small, furry, eight-legged friend.
Eric, Neal and Julie can get to the magical world of Droon down a staircase under Eric's basement. Eric has picked up a few wizard powers along the way. He can make his fingers spark, see visions and even talk inside his friends' heads (handy in a football match, it turns out!).
In the middle of a school match he has a vision of a spinning red ball. So they dash straight to Droon.
The ball is the Ruby Orb of Doobesh, sitting on the wizard Galen's worktable. Then it floats up, starts to spin and zaps Max, Galen's spider troll helper. Max shrinks to the size of a mouse and gets sucked right inside it. Then the Orb whooshes off over the sea!
Poor Galen is heartbroken. He and Max have been together for thirty years. So they set sail on the Jaffa Wind, a royal ship with sails, a steam engine and wings.
The crew is a brilliant mix. There's Keeah, the princess wizard, and Friddle, the inventor who built the ship. There's a fox-eared king up in the lookout, and Khan, king of the purple Lumpies, whose nose can sniff out danger. Best of all there's Shago, a very smug master thief who only steals from Sparr's warriors (or so he says).
Their only hope is the Orb's twin, the Sapphire Star. It's locked away in the fortress of Bazra, Queen of Robbers, whose guards have two dog heads each. Later there's a giant who thinks the children are pixies!
The friendship is what makes it. Everyone drops everything to help Max. And there's a sweet moment where Eric tries to cheer Galen up by telling him being old means he knows everything.
Neal and Julie keep up a running argument about whether the Jaffa Wind is a boat or a ship. Silly and very them.
It all moves fast, with lots of Whoosh! and Zzzt! There's peril, with sneaking past guards and a giant stomping round his house, but it's cartoonish rather than frightening.
Eric already has his powers here, so the series is a good way along. The first chapter fills in everything you need.
If they love a rescue mission, try The Golden Wasp. This time it's Eric's own dad who vanishes into Droon, after Julie brings back something she really shouldn't have.
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