When Jake persuades his family to embark on a sailing-camping holiday on a small island in Tasmania, he is mostly interested in pirate fantasies and his home-built sailing dinghy.
But he does not plan on events which are to leave him isolated with his brother and sister,and a couple of Kiwi kids. Ultimately, after being forced to dig deep into their personal reserves, the treasures they all gain from their experiences are very different from the ones Jake has set out to find.
This uplifting tale of youthful naivety, camaraderie, calamity and triumph has huge appeal for any free-spirited reader in the nine to ninety-nine age bracket.
BACKGROUND TO THOSE SNAKE ISLAND KIDS:
Although this is essentially a work of fiction, it is based on true events and real places. Snake Island exists, uninhabited, exactly as on Jess’s maps. If you can find Hobart on google maps, and then use the maps in the book to help you (they can be printed from here).
The historical details are accurate too, treasure hunters are still looking for the missing gold nearby on Bruny Island, and even the story of children campers being marooned there during a storm is real.
As for the lifestyle of the kiwi twins – my own kiwi children have lived exactly this way, sailing off for a year or longer with all their schoolwork in boxes, plotting expeditions, camping on deserted islands and living a lifestyle inspired by Arthur Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazon’ kids.
Privateer exists too, black with a gold skull and crossbones on her side, and a part-red sail. The first edition cover (below) has a photo of Dan sailing her, and you can see her with our whole black fleet here
And although the Forty spotted Pardelotes’ existence still hangs in the balance, thanks to the work of so many concerned bird-lovers, there remains hope for their future.
