Hook's Daughter: The Untold Tale of a Pirate Princess: The Pirate Princess Chronicles, Book 1
Common Sense Media Review
By Carrie R. Wheadon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Slight but sweet trip to Neverland swaps villains.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
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What's the Story?
In HOOK'S DAUGHTER: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A PIRATE PRINCESS, Rommy is excited about her father's visit to her prestigious London boarding school. Just that morning she made the varsity fencing team by beating the school bully for the spot. She hopes that will convince him that she's old enough to join him on his ship for the summer. The hours tick by, though, and he doesn't arrive. Rommy gets so worried that she sneaks out of school dressed as a boy and heads to the docks. Things go wrong right away: A strange boy keeps following her, she tries to stop a gang of boys from beating up a girl and loses her bag with all her money, and when she arrives at her father's office, it's covered in dust as if no one has been there in years. That's when the boy following her makes an offer to take her to her father, but first she needs to believe she can fly.
Is It Any Good?
The softer side of Captain Hook comes out in this slight but sweet trip to Neverland with Rommy, a sheltered, headstrong girl who calls him Papa. Rommy has no idea her dad is a villain, and in this story he comes off as less of a serious baddie and more a caretaker of a group of unruly pirates he needs to keep in line. Meanwhile, Pan is the one no one really trusts, not even his friend Finn, who's been sent to fetch Rommy from the real world. Readers may be confused about whose side to take, and author R.V. Bowman doesn't make it easy for them to decide.
The balance of the story is also off. Since there's no focus on the real world at the end of Hook's Daughter, there was no need to set up Rommy's school and friendships and rivalries so thoroughly. We are ten chapters in before she even sneaks out to find her father. And, as it should, the story builds toward a meeting between Rommy and Daddy Hook. But when that meeting happens, readers get very few answers about why he's even in Neverland: Was he always Captain Hook, even when Rommy was born? While there are two more books in this series, the amount of mystery left at the end of this volume keeps it from feeling complete.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Hook's Daughter is similar to Peter Pan stories and movies you know, and how it differs.
Who is the villain of this tale? What does Rommy decide, and how does the difficulty of her decision show her empathy? What have you decided? How many books do you read where the villain isn't always clear?
Many secrets still remain after this story. What do you think Rommy will learn in Book 2?
Book Details
- Author: R.V. Bowman
- Genre: Fantasy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Sports and Martial Arts , Adventures , Book Characters , Middle School , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires , Pirates
- Character Strengths: Courage , Empathy , Perseverance
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Rosanne Bowman
- Publication date: November 26, 2018
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 8 - 12
- Number of pages: 236
- Available on: Paperback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: August 21, 2024
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