The Voyage to Magical North

by Claire Fayers

Overview

Twelve-year-old Brine Seaborne is a girl with a past—if only she could remember what it is. Found alone in a rowboat as a child, clutching a shard of the rare starshell needed for spell-casting, she's spent the past years keeping house for an irritable magician and his obnoxious apprentice, Peter.

When Brine and Peter get themselves into a load of trouble and flee, they blunder into the path of the legendary pirate ship the Onion. Before you can say "pieces of eight," they're up to their necks in the pirates' quest to find Magical North, a place so shrouded in secrets and myth that most people don't even think it exists. If Brine is lucky, she’ll find her place in the world. And if she's unlucky, everyone on the ship will be eaten by sea monsters. It could really go either way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627794206
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	07/05/2016
Series:	The Accidental Pirates , #1
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Claire Fayers is the author of The Voyage to Magical North and its sequel, The Journey to Dragon Island. She lives in South Wales with her husband and as many cats as she can get away with.

Editorial Reviews

"A robust debut, well stocked with heroic exploits, monsters, pirates, explosions, magical transformations, and life-changing adventures, and a promising series starter." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review, on The Voyage to Magical North

"Welsh author Claire Fayers buoys her seaworthy series debut The Voyage to Magical North with agreeably understated humor, over-the-top sea monsters and nuanced characters. This finely spun adventure is the very definition of swashbuckler, but also thoughtfully examines ideas of story, good vs. evil, instinct vs. rules and self-discovery. A treasure." —Shelf Awareness, starred review, on The Voyage to Magical North

"The beautiful cover design reflects the charming adventure within; this multilayered fantasy handles a variety of themes, including the meaning of family, the ability of power to corrupt, and the importance of stories. Upper elementary and younger middle grade fans of Lynne Jonell’s The Sign of the Cat will be enchanted by Brine’s high seas adventure." —School Library Journal, on The Voyage to Magical North

From the Publisher

★ 2016-05-18
For two young fugitives, being captured by pirates is only the first step in an epic quest for a fabled trove of gold and magic.Hardly have inept apprentice magician Peter Magus, a white boy, and Brine Seaborne, a dark-skinned lass of 12 with an allergy to magic and no memory of her origins, fled a wicked master than they are picked up by legendary freebooter Cassie O'Pia, charismatic white captain of the equally renowned vessel Onion. Under the guidance of a scary but (supposedly) captive wizard, sails are set for the Magical North, where a massive concentration of starshell—corrosive but invaluable as the source of all magical power—is said to lie hidden amid mounds of treasure. Along with conceiving delicious hazards to overcome along the way, ranging from an island of misanthropic librarians to flocks of cute penguins with piranhalike habits, Fayers shows a bright if underused gift for comic description (one character sports "a face like a fish on a bad day"). She also surrounds her two high-friction protagonists with a vivid if not particularly diverse supporting cast featuring a decidedly atypical pirate captain and, for once, a boy disguised as a girl instead of the other way round. A robust debut, well stocked with heroic exploits, monsters, pirates, explosions, magical transformations, and life-changing adventures, and a promising series starter. (Fantasy. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews