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| Cover by the awesome Teo Skaffa |
Summary from UCLan Publishing
The whole of Pirate Academy is abuzz with anticipation for the upcoming Oceans Bound weekend. It’s the first time the young pirate apprentices of Barracuda Class will set sail as five independent crews – with no teacher oversight!
Excitement reaches fever-pitch as Commodore Kuo and Captain Salt reveal which of the fifteen Barracudas will act as captains for Oceans Bound. Jacoby is devastated when he isn’t picked, which makes things difficult for Jasmine when she is chosen. But worse, much worse, is in store, when Jasmine is told that her Uncle Noah – a ringleader of the League of True Pirates – has, against all odds, broken out of the Pirate Federation’s maximum security prison. Fearing that he will try to make contact with Jasmine, the Head and Deputy give Jasmine the chance to opt out of Oceans Bound. But Jasmine is not about to let her renegade uncle ruin everything.
The five Barracuda crews set sail with hope and adventure in their hearts, beginning a complex trail of tasks, each delivered to its crew via a note in a coloured glass bottle. For one crew, the tasks quickly become much more dangerous. As they bravely navigate poisonous snakes, venomous spiders, sharks and skulls, it becomes clear that someone else is now in control of Oceans Bound.
It’s going to take everything they’ve got for our plucky young pirates to complete the course and triumph against their fiendish enemy.
Nayu's thoughts
After all the drama in book 1 I was thrilled to be back in Pirate Academy, and this time the drama focused a lot more on my favourite character Jasmine, with her friends Neo and Jacoby getting lots of page time too. Honestly everything I learned in book one gets twisted so much I'm wondering where book 3 will take us (not until next year, nooo!). There is a lot of personal drama going on. Jacoby deals with resentment and realising he isn't super amazing at everything, which he kind of knew but he felt he ought to be captain. The way he treats Jasmine as a result is poor, and thankfully he does see the light and make amends eventually.
Most of the drama happens outside the academy due to the exploration of the special 48 hours without teachers directly with the students. They are being kept an eye on, but not nearly close enough considering the evil LoTP is watching them even closer and misguides Jasmine's crew for their own nefarious means. The shocks kept coming when the enemy reunites with Jasmine, and she makes a sort of willing agreement to go into their territory and learn the truth. Well, some truths, and all of them were gobsmackingly twisted in actual truth in a way that I hadn't guessed at all. My guesses were way off the mark and it turned my thoughts upside down, let alone Jasmine's world. So much for her to deal with, I did like how the teachers tried to ease her burden of the truths that they knew, ditto when Neo had some issues that the nurse helped with.
There were way too many snakes in the book, those bits terrified me (the spiders I could cope with), and was eager to get past those parts. As I flipped page after page, gently swaying in my rocking chair to mimic a ship sailing on waves, I was enthralled in the tale. The way it ended made sense but I was a little sad by characters parting ways as they work well together when not sulking. It's going to be a very long wait for book 3! Although how the revelations could top book 2 is a little bit of a mystery.
Be sure to check out more on Justin's website.
Suggested read
Definitely read book 1 Review: Pirate Academy 1 New Kid on Deck by Justin Somper (Children's, 7 years +, 10E/10E)
and also Justin's Vampirates series including Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper (Children's, 9 years +, 10/10E)
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