This is book three in the Wolves Chronicles, but I think that the Chronicles are a series of books that are loosely related. In the first book, we met Bonnie and Sylvia who were aided by a secondary character, Simon, the goose boy, in rural England. In book two, we followed Simon to London where he made new friends like bratty little Dido Twite and also discovered he was more than a goose boy. Now we pick up again with Dido Twite who is on board a whaling ship somewhere near Alaska. And she’s just woken up from a ten month nap!
These are simple and simply delightful books. I’m thinking 4th through 6th grade girls will be more apt to take a chance with them. Their covers are dated. They are not on any notable American book lists that I have found. But I did find the first on an Accelerated Reader quiz list and the Book Adventure website and that’s promising.
As I said before, Dido was a bit of a homely brat in the second book. She was like a pesky sister that you were required to pay attention to especially because your parents didn’t want to. But Dido was loyal and came through for Simon at his most desperate hour. Her no-nonsense, tomboy-like ways as well as her feisty defiance come in handy on the ship and later on a farm on Nantucket Island.
We are introduced to several more curious characters this time around, as well as reacquainted with some old villains from our first ride. The Captain is a fatherly Quaker who is smitten with a pink whale. He forced his men to follow “Rosie” out of their whaling waters and all the way around the Cape. Along the way, his wife died leaving his young daughter, Dutiful Penitence, locked in her closet-sized cabin with only plum jelly to eat. Her prison is self-imposed. She is afraid that she will fall overboard if she sets foot on deck. When Dido awakens, her first job is to coax the daughter out of her jail cell. After all, the Captain pulled her from the frigid waters off the coast of England and Dido now owes him this favor.
After many more months at sea, the ship finally arrives back home on Nantucket. The Captain hopes to leave Dido with Dutiful in the care of his sister, Aunt Tribulation, so that he can chase after Rosie. Dutiful, “Pen” as Dido calls her, is as frightened of Aunt Trib as she is of nearly everything else except baking, embroidering and nursing. Dido yields to the idea that she’ll have to break Pen of her fears before she is finally able to book a ship and sail home to England.
Aunt Tribulation gives orders from her sick bed and leaves the two girls to milk the cows, make the butter, cook the food, pasture the sheep and hoe the potatoes. Despite the heavy workload, the girls are still able to uncover a plot to kill King James on his throne. There are horrid Hanoverians hiding in the Hidden Forest and they have a foreign genius who has designed an enormous cannon big enough to shoot the King from Nantucket. Unfortunately, the recoil will send Nantucket into New York Harbor and we cannot have that can we?
Hilarious really.
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