Most people writing a pirate story for children would be happy to come up with a pirate ship name as awesomely cool as The Sinful Sausage, but Margaret Mahy's just getting started. The Sinful Sausage, it transpires, was until very recently Ye Olde Pyratte Tea Shoppe - she's still got tables and sunshades bolted to her deck - and that's even before we get to her crew...

I first read this charming story when I was at school, and finding a copy of the same edition for 40p in a secondhand bookshop on my 31st birthday, I had to get it. It's just as delightful as I remembered - a 160-page romp full of pirates, orphans, witches, dragons, inventors, detectives and balloons. Oh, and pudding. Lots and lots of pudding. ( )