Midnight Pirates by Ally Kennen

Author: Ally Kennen
Original title:  Midnight Pirates   
Pages: 227
Edition Language: English
Series: no 
Format:  Paperback
Genres: Children, YA, Fiction 
Goodreads

Blurb:
     Midnight pirates is about a young girl Miranda and her two brothers, Jackie aged 10 and Cal aged 17. This story is set by the beach in a hotel named the Dodo. But disaster strikes as the three of them are sent to boarding school while their parents are going to a wedding and they will never see the bankrupt Dodo hotel ever again. Only it doesn't go quite as planned.
      After her younger brother Jackie escapes back to the Dodo hotel Cal and Miranda have no other option but to go after him and miss the train to the school. Shortly after arriving at the hotel they receive guests, but little do they know the guests true identity. Can they save the Dodo? And what are the guest's true colours? 

My thought:
     I was not expecting much from this book as it's not my usual cup of tea. But the book is good: it has a solid plot, suspense, and mystery. Every character has its own voice and opinion. However good it is I still had major issues reading it. From the point of view of a young reader the book is full of rebellion, challenges, adventure and freedom. From an adult point of view I can see only disobedience, disrespect towards adults, danger and irresponsibleness.
      I really disliked the children from the book because of their lies to the parents and their irresponsible behavior. One situation just killed me: when they got new guests, they could not actually provide any basic comfort to the guests (and we must take into consideration that all children were involved into the hotel business from early childhood); the maximum effort was to provide semi-clean linen; the rest is the description of how they enjoyed their freedom and idleness. Really? That’s the idea of 17 year old and 15 year old about hotel management. Then I guess parents made some major mistakes in their upbringing. That all really gets in the way and spoiled the impression, and I tried to like the characters, really... but just could not.
      From the adventure point of view I have no problems (keeping in might again that this is the book for 11-13 year old). Real pirates, danger to kill the environment of the bay, loneliness, fear and courage: everything was in the order and from this perspective I liked the book.
      Altogether, I think it is an easy, exciting read for teenagers, but the characters’ behavior does not set a good example.

Rating: 

    2/5