The curse: "We must find The Marigold's stolen treasure and return it before the dawn of the last day of the seventh year. If we don't we are doomed to be turned to sand."
"You are much more than your name, always remember that. All of us are a tale within a tale within a tale."
So, time is ticking. As this story begins it is the seventh year - April 4th 1719 and they only have until December 31st to complete their quest.
Every crew member (called the Worshipful Company of Uncommon Seamen) on the ship and every 'kidnapped' child is there because they possess a magical gift. With Lavender this gift is of hearing and naming the winds. You are right if you are thinking this is a very important skill on a sailing ship.
I really wanted a character list for this book so I have created one:
- Lavender Wolfe - left at a wharf by her mother, snatched by the cook Big Agatha and taken onto a pirate ship named The Good Marchioness "the most magical and cursed pirate ship that ever sailed the seven seas". Lavender is renamed Hans Whitby (Whitby is the name of the town where she was 'found').
- Big Agatha the ogress and magical cook - she hugged "so hard that you were turned to flummery with being loved." "I can sense a teaspoonful of magic in an urchin quick as the whiskers grow on my chin. Yet I cannot say what that magic all be."
- Colin one of the kitchen rats - he/she is especially kind to Lavender
- Poppet - another kitchen rat - he/she knows all the recipes cooked by Agatha
- Odine - a chicken
- Samuel, Thomas, and Peter Portugal all ship's rats but none are able to complete the voyage with Lavender
- Michael - a boy who has been magically trapped in shell
- Captain Odyessia Pleasant - she is the captain of The Good Marchioness. One of her arms is a huge bird wing. "She was beautiful; a ragged scar across the left side of her face, from her lip to her missing ear, ... Captain Pleasant had a wing instead of a right arm. A large wing reached down almost to the floor, glowing coppery beneath the lanterns."
- Ginger - cat who can transform into a sailor
- Oliver de Basseterre - a baby
- The Princess with no name and her father the Wizard King
- Captain Barnabas Bloom - pirate and father to Michael. He is transformed into ... (sorry I can't tell you)
- Queniva - a sparrowhawk
- Crew - Sasha Blackhat; Jonas; Tiny Percival; Percy; Grimes and Savage
- Lyneham prisoner from the ship the pirates attacked and pillaged. (He is not to be trusted)
- The Little Duchess - Ghost-fetcher and her guardian The Dowager
- Princess Yasbel de la Esclera who has her named changed to Phillip - she has magical hair
Ships - Lady Eloise - a ghost ship which holds the spectral map; The Good Marchioness the ship carrying Lavender and others who need to break the curse; The Marigold which is the ship carrying the Princess to her betrothed and The Fair Fortune the ship of Captain Barnabas Bloom.
Recipes - all contain extra magic - I learned a new word or two in this book - ananas it's a pineapple and the word clapperdudgeon which means beggar.
Agatha calls the kitchen kids (all with boys names) rats but in fact she showers them with her love and enormous hugs.
Text quotes:
"I never wanted to meet a ghost ship nor glimpse one from a distance. But I wanted to see the spell canister and its last spell resurrecting the princess and Michael out of the shell. I wanted Samuel and Peter and Octavius returned. I wanted everything restored, which meant me going home. I wanted more story. I wanted questions answered. I wanted to know how Captain Pleasant came to be cursed and how Ginger could turn into a cat."
"And I knew that I, Hans Whitby, previously of the pickling shelf, floor scrubber, potato peeler, spoon-shiner, still with the name of Lavender tucked safe inside me, magic porridge-stirrer, tender of wounds, meant for the sea, rescuer of prisoners and friend of a ghost-fetcher, with a tiny drop of blood from a cutlass upon my chest, climber of masts, was about to die."
This book is a huge saga - with nearly 400 pages and a myriad of characters and a complex plot. Young readers aged 10+ will need reading stamina and also plenty of time because I think you need to read this book over just two or three days so you can keep track of all the threads. I am speaking from experience because I read this book over five days in very small snatches and I kept having to turn back to previous scenes to follow all the twists and turns. There is the potential at the end of the story for a sequel but I actually hope Karen Foxlee does not continue her story and rather leaves the future adventures of young Lavender to our imaginations.
You can find teachers notes on the publisher web page. Take a look at the labels I have assigned this post - these might give you further ideas about some of the themes (such as the importance of names and destinies) and these also hint at some major plot details.
I do have to talk for a moment about pirate stories. Sadly, there are real pirates in our world we now call them people smugglers. A few of us have begun to re-think our picture books about pirates especially if members of your school community have come to Australia as refugees. Strangely I read another Australian middle grade novel with a pirate theme last month - Oceanforged my Amelia Mellior. The issue of pirates and of glorifying them in kids story books is one I need to ponder a little more deeply. This is not intended as a criticism of The Wondrous Tale of Lavender Wolfe it is just something to consider.
Here is some further reading about this topic:
I am a huge fan of Karen Foxlee. Take a look at these:
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