Pirate Academy: New Kid On Deck

Pirate Academy: New Kid On Deck

Justin Somper

Teo Skaffa

A & U Children’s, 2025

224pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99

9781761182044

What better way to continue the CBCA Book Week theme of Book an Adventure than with a swashbuckling pirate adventure?

But this isn’t one of the traditional pirate era of the 17th/18th century for the year is 2507, the oceans have risen and a new dawn of piracy led by the Pirate Federation has begun.

Jacoby Blunt and Jasmine Peacock are students at the elite Pirate Academy where, as members of already famous pirate families, they study for 10 years under teachers who are all legendary sea captains. to become pirate captains themselves. . But this is no ordinary school because lessons range from Knots Class and Sailing to Combat Workshop.  The pressure is always on and friendship is everything. So trust is a big issue. But who can be trusted?

However, when a new kid – the mysterious Neo Splice – arrives, everything changes  very quickly. Suddenly, the dangers are no longer at sea but stalking the classrooms and corridors of Pirate Academy. In the face of real peril, the students of Barracuda class must put everything they have learned to the test against an unexpected and ruthless new enemy.

Written from the perspectives of the various characters,  with different chapters jumping from Jacoby’s, Jasmine’s and the new kid Neo’s viewpoints, it offers the reader an opportunity to uncover and understand  their  thoughts, actions and motivations so not only are the characters more rounded, the explanation for their choices is clearer. They might even consider just which character they would be if they were in the story. 

This is a fast-paced adventure story that combines old traditions and new challenges but in terms of relationships, even when things get tricky and Jacoby and Neo react in questionable ways – reflecting the real world of today-  the same valued traits of initiative, reliability, dependability,  and so on endure. 

One for independent readers who like a daring adventure with the prospect of more to come – the initial series will have three books.

In the meantime, they might like to investigate Vampirates, by the same author and which is set five years later but there are some cross-over characters, including Jacoby, Jasmine and Commodore John Kuo, Headcaptain of the Academy.