Magic Marks the Spot (Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates) by Caroline Carlson



Pirates! Magic! Treasure! A gargoyle? Caroline Carlson's hilarious tween novel The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot is perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events and Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society.
Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She can tread water for thirty-seven minutes. She can tie a knot faster than a fleet of sailors, and she already owns a rather pointy sword.
There's only one problem: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates refuses to let any girl join their ranks of scourges and scallywags.
But Hilary is not the kind of girl to take no for answer. To escape a life of petticoats and politeness at her stuffy finishing school, Hilary sets out in search of her own seaworthy adventure, where she gets swept up in a madcap quest involving a map without an X, a magical treasure that likely doesn't exist, a talking gargoyle, a crew of misfit scallywags, and the most treacherous—and unexpected—villain on the High Seas.
Written with uproarious wit and an inviting storyteller tone, the first book in Caroline Carlson's quirky seafaring series is a piratical tale like no other.

  • Age Range: 8 - 12 years
  • Grade Level: 3 - 7
  • Lexile Measure: 900L (What's this?)
  • Series: Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates (Book 1)
  • Hardcover: 368 pages

Buy it on Amazon. (aff link)

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How We Read: Audiobook

Kid Ages at Time of Reading (in Years): 7 & 5

How It Came Alive

New Vocabulary

There are fabulous words like "scallywags" and "swashbuckling" that are fun and wonderful additions to our vocabulary. 

Pretend Play

And it is a delight to watch the kids be pirates in their pretend play.

Maths, Geography

The most surprising conversation in the book was one of maths - the pirates discuss standards of measurement that we were then able to reconstruct in our neighborhood. If the treasure is twenty steps away from a tree then how could that be different depending on the person who measured the steps? Try it. We started in one spot, marked the ground with chalk, stepped twenty steps and marked again. Of course, we all stopped in different places. Then we changed the way we were pacing - small steps, big steps, skipping steps, etc...




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