Jocelyn Hook, daughter of the infamous Captain James Hook, may have defeated her father’s nemesis, the crocodile, but she is at a loss for truly understanding The Pirate’s Code in the second book in Heidi Schulz’s series, Hook’s Revenge. Upon his demise, Captain Hook left his daughter a map leading her to his treasure trove of gold and gems; however, she cannot understand the code. Jocelyn must decipher the map before her own nemesis, Captain Krueger, discovers her ship and the treasure.

This book offers one liners, adventure, and friendship for the middle grades and I enjoyed the development of Neverland characters throughout this book. Roger, Jocelyn’s Bos’n (boatswain) and best friend, was cast out of the Lost Boys and found refuge on Jocelyn’s ship, Hook’s Revenge in the first book and is seen again in this one. It is clear he is no longer the shy, non-confrontational boy he once was. He has matured, along with the crew of distempered, ill-behaved rapscallion Pirates aboard the ship. Mr. Smee has also returned and is still exactly how I envision him to look, talk and act from my own young experiences with Disney’s Peter Pan.

To help the reader with the visuals of the terrible Pirates and their predicaments there are a few illustrations scattered throughout the story by John Hendrix. The visuals were extremely detailed, but scarce enough to allow the reader to use their own creative imaginations.

The voice of the narrator is once again quick witted with his own commentary throughout the book. It is obvious he doesn’t necessarily like these kids, but tells the story regardless of his own personal agenda. He adds a wit to the children’s tale worth rereading to ensure you caught the humor, and in his own words, I digress…

Peter Pan and Tiger Lily make brief cameos, but it is the kidnapping of Pan’s Mother which causes Jocelyn much stress. She soon discovers it is not Pan’s mother, but someone else who must be returned immediately, otherwise her own fate will be altered. I look forward to more adventures of Jocelyn–Admiral Hook–as she must combat perceived notions of codes and create her own.

In the Classroom:
A key person on a ship is the navigator or Sailing Master. This task along with Bos’n is given to her first mate and best friend, Roger. He must align the path or course of Hook’s Revenge with Jocelyn’s ever-changing mind. The fun part of this task, regardless of maps and a compass rose, is the ever evolving and changing island of Neverland. Even Tiger Lily, who is owner of all visions past, cannot help interpret where Captain Hook’s map has them going.

This is a great classroom library read, but it is also a great book to help students align coordinates on a map. Thanks to GPS and modern technology we can get where we are going rather quickly, but the life of a pirate is one without these gadgets. To align with 6th and 7th grade Common Core Standards in Math have your students plot out different courses their ships may go if they were to capture gold and gems.

You can use this book as an extra credit project, or you can recommend books on your shelves which allow your student to “Solve real-world and mathematical problems by graphing points in all four quadrants of the coordinate plane. Include use of coordinates and absolute value to find distances between points with the same first coordinate or the same second coordinate.” (CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.NS.C.8.)

Hook’s Revenge by Heidi Schulz (Disney-Hyperion | 9781484717172 | September 15, 2015)