Author(s): Meg Caddy

Middle School (Ages 11-14) | Vortext Junior Longlist - Balmoral SHS | Middle Fiction

This rollicking historical novel from Australian writer Meg Caddy takes us into the world of real-life pirate Anne Bonny, picking up her story where history left off.

The way out is through. Anne Bonny is chained up in the hold of a prison ship, nursing nine-month-old Molly. The baby is all she has left of Calico Jack, the swaggering pirate captain who loved her and stole her away to sea-and who now hangs from a gibbet. When armed men rip the child from her grasp, Bonny can do nothing and Molly seems lost. But Anne Bonny was not cut out for despair. She will plan for escape and rescue, and the plan will become action. And the streets of London will belong to her and her daughter-and the ragtag remnants of Calico Jack's crew.

Anne Bonny looms large in the history of piracy on the high seas. But history, having left the notorious female buccaneer languishing in Newgate Gaol, then carelessly mislaid her. Fortunately we have Meg Caddy to imagine her subsequent exploits and whereabouts, and to bring them so vividly and rakishly to life.