ESCAPE FROM THE CARNIVALE
A Never Land Book
by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
illustrated by Greg Call
Disney Editions/Hyperion Books
ISBN-10: 0786837896
ISBN-13: 9780786837892
Ages 7-10
144 pages

Some things have changed and some things haven't ever since Peter left Mollusk Island. The Lost Boys are still boys, and those pirates are still trying to escape or do whatever pirates do. For Little Scallop though, she's about to go on a wild adventure of her own. When she decides to spend the day with her mermaid friends, Aqua and Surf, the excited twins show Scallop the pearls that their friend found. The princess wishes she could find a pearl of her own, and the mermaid twins suggest that they go pearl diving. Unfortunately, the mermaid Teacher says that the pearls are in a place currently forbidden from the young girls.

Determined to go through with their adventure, Scallop, Aqua and Surf meet later that night by the shore. After the friends find themselves briefly lost, they see a ship heading for their direction. While trying to swiftly swim back home, Surf becomes tangled in a net and is captured by the crew of the ship, Carnivale, led by the disgusting Crookshanks, who has decided that Surf is the main attraction of his seafaring circus.

Now it's up to Little Scallop and her friends to save Surf from a scary new life or risk the end of the happiness that they've always known. They just have to make sure that they don't cross paths with Never Land's resident pirates in the process!

ESCAPE FROM THE CARNIVALE is the first book in a spin-off series aimed at young fans of PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, though it isn't necessary to have read the latter in order to enjoy the former. Complete with black-and-white illustrations, this latest effort from Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson will spark the imagination of young readers and feed their appetite for adventure stories.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah Sawtelle (SdarksideG@aol.com)

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