‘Cruise Ship Kid' by Emma Swan: A Book Review
Cruise Ship Kid follows Silver, the daughter of a ship employee, as she tries to make friends with other children on the boat before finding herself pulled into the mystery of two missing expensive watches.
Author Emma Swan grew up on a cruise ship, and she brings her experiences to the page in Cruise Ship Kid. There are echoes here of previously reviewed Mysteries at Sea books, though I think this book will work for younger ages (around 8 upwards). It has a neat device for enticing reluctant readers to engage with the story, and every completed copy will be unique to the reader!
The book is presented as Silver's diary and as a conversation between her and the reader. She has a varied life, moving from port to port, with her mother, who is in charge of 'passenger experience.' As such, Silver can rarely say out loud what she thinks, which makes her diary an invaluable tool for venting. She has a fun troupe of elderly friends, who are perennial crusiers, but she rarely finds anybody her own age to spend time with. When she does meet a friend, they quickly return to their own lives after their cruise is over.
Silver's life is a fun life but a lonely one.
In Cruise Ship Kid, she is trying to make friends and perhaps thinks she has found one in Yana. Readers can see that Yana may not be as good a friend as she could be, and that Silver is being used for access to unusual areas of the ship. Yana and Silver are thrown closer together when Yana's guardians' expensive watches go missing. Together, the two try to work out where they ended up.
If you're looking for a pure kids' detective story, there are probably better options out there. Alice Eclair or Peril on the Atlantic , for example, but what neither of those books have, is Silver's unique narrative voice.
The diary format gives Emma Swan great license to interact with her readers, with Katie Saunders' excellent illustrations affording further opportunities to extend the book's interactivity. Not only does Silver tell us what's going on, but she also asks for our opinions throughout the book. She wants our input to work out what is going on. Through her eyes, we see the spitefulness of some of the passangers, the selfishness of others, but also many characters with good intentions, enjoying their holiday. Silver also shows us that first impressions are not always accurate.
Silver's diary entries are arranged with space for readers to write in the book too, making a great interactive experience. We're positively encouraged to write and draw in the book, meaning, children finishing the book will have a copy unique to themselves, which is a nice touch. Silver asks questions of her readers, and we can tell her a little bit about ourselves.
Threaded through the book is a gentle self-esteem storyline, and through her diary and observations, Silver encourages readers to be happy with the way they are. At the start of the book, she is hoping to change herself to win Yana's friendship, but by the end, she is more comfortable in her own skin, and she invites her readers to join her on that journey. It's gentle but affecting stuff and a neat idea.
What I enjoyed most about the book is Silver's individuality and her verve for life. The ensemble cast is also great fun, with Swan's host of aging cruisegoers providing not only wisdom and comfort for Silver, but also plenty of laughs, too.
All in all, Cruise Ship Kid: Thief at Sea is a great summer read for younger children who can read confidently. With its sections open for the readers' thoughts and pictures, it's ideal for those who love to create, especially during the long dusty, and occasionally boring hours of the school summer vacation.
If you would like to pick up a copy of Cruise Ship Kid, here. (Affiliate Link)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Post
7 hours ago
- National Post
Performer unfurls Palestinian flag during curtain call at Royal Opera House in London
A performer holding a Palestinian flag touched off a brief scuffle on stage at the Royal Opera House in London as cast members were taking their bows following the season's final performance of 'Il Trovatore.' Article content Images posted on social media show what appears to be a member of the chorus holding the unfurled flag in front of his chest while the lead singers bask in the audience's applause on Saturday night. Article content After a few moments, someone backstage tries to grab the flag, but the performer holds onto it and snaps back into place. Article content Article content 🎥 Performer unfurls Palestinian flag in Royal Opera House protest (Credit: sydcas/X) — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 20, 2025 Article content 'The display of the flag was an unauthorized action by the artist,' the opera company said in a statement on Sunday. 'It was not approved by the Royal Ballet and Opera and is a wholly inappropriate act.' Article content Article content 'Il Trovatore,' which translates as 'The Troubadour,' is an 1853 opera by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Director Adele Thomas' production reinterprets the story of desire and an all-consuming curse, the opera said. Article content
CTV News
12 hours ago
- CTV News
Pro-Palestinian protest prompts scuffle onstage at Royal Opera House in London
LONDON — A performer holding a Palestinian flag touched off a brief scuffle on stage at the Royal Opera House in London on Saturday night as cast members were taking their bows following the season's final performance of 'Il Trovatore.' Images posted on social media show what appears to be a member of the chorus holding the unfurled flag in front of his chest while the lead singers bask in the audience's applause. After a few moments, someone backstage attempts to grab the flag, but the performer holds onto the banner and snaps back into place. Singers were taking their bows after the end of the opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Director Adele Thomas' production reinterprets the story of desire and an all-consuming curse, the opera said. 'The display of the flag was spontaneous and unauthorized action by the artist,'' the opera company said in a statement. 'It was not approved by the Royal Ballet & Opera and is not in line with our commitment to political impartiality.'
CTV News
17 hours ago
- CTV News
Medieval scribe's slip-up triggered centuries of confusion over a long-lost saga. Researchers finally decoded the error
The Song of Wade epic was once so popular that a preacher referenced it in his 13th-century sermon (pictured). (Courtesy of the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse/University of Cambridge via CNN Newsource) Lesser known than some other beloved tales of larger-than-life heroes such as Gilgamesh, Beowulf and King Arthur, the Song of Wade is a case study in what happens when stories aren't written down. The epic was once widely known throughout medieval and Renaissance England — so popular that it was mentioned twice by Chaucer — but today it is mostly forgotten. Only a few phrases survive, and new research is showing how, when so little of a story is preserved, changes in a word or two can alter the entire tale. The Song of Wade originated in the 12th century, and its hero battled monsters — or so scholars once thought. The only known text was found nearly 130 years ago in a 13th- century Latin sermon, which quoted a bit of the saga in Middle English. In the excerpt, the word 'ylues' was originally translated as 'elves,' suggesting that Wade's long-lost saga was teeming with supernatural creatures. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. have challenged that interpretation. They proposed that the word's meaning was mangled by a scribe's transcription error, which changed a 'w' to a 'y.' 'Elves' is actually 'wolves,' and the term was allegorical, referring to dangerous men, according to the analysis. Another word in the excerpt, translated as 'sprites,' should instead be 'sea snakes,' moving the story even farther away from the realm of the supernatural, the researchers reported July 15 in The Review of English Studies. This new reading revises not only the phrases quoted in the sermon, but also the entire Song of Wade, centering the hero amid worldly dangers rather than mythical beasts. It overturns the picture of Wade as a literary twin to Beowulf, legendary slayer of the warrior-eating monster Grendel, said study coauthor Dr. Seb Falk, a researcher of science history and a fellow at Cambridge's Girton College. 'He was more like a hero of chivalric romance (a literary genre celebrating knights, codes of honor and romantic love) like Sir Launcelot or Sir Gawain,' Falk told CNN in an email. For hundreds of years, historians and literary experts have argued over why Chaucer would have mentioned the Song of Wade in his chivalric works. Recasting Wade as a courtly hero rather than a monster slayer makes Wade's appearance in Chaucer's writing a better fit and could help to uncover previously hidden meanings in those literary references, the authors wrote. A medieval meme The new study is the first to analyze the Song of Wade excerpt alongside the entirety of the Latin sermon that quotes it, said study coauthor Dr. James Wade, an associate professor of English Literature at Girton College. (The surname 'Wade' was relatively common in medieval England, and while Wade the researcher could not confirm a family connection to the storied hero, a link 'isn't impossible,' he told CNN in an email.) In fact, it was the context of the sermon that led the researchers to the discovery that the fragment in English had been misinterpreted, Wade said. The sermon was about humility, and it warned that some people 'are wolves, such as powerful tyrants' who take 'by any means.' There are other allusions to unfavorable animal traits in humans. As originally translated, the Song of Wade excerpt read: 'Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters: there is no man, but Hildebrand (Wade's father) only.' For centuries, scholars have struggled to make sense of why references to 'elves' and 'sprites' were included in a sermon about humility. According to the new translation, the excerpt reads: 'Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand.' Reinterpreted this way, the quoted phrases align more closely with the overall message of the sermon and redefine the genre of the story. 'We realised that taking the fragment together with its context would allow us not only to completely reinterpret the Wade legend, but also to reshape our understanding of how stories were told and retold in different cultural contexts, including religious contexts,' Wade said. Dr. James Wade (left) and Dr. Seb Falk Study coauthors Dr. James Wade (left) and Dr. Seb Falk study the sermon mentioning the Song of Wade. (Courtesy of the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse/University of Cambridge via CNN Newsource) The long-standing difficulties in interpreting the excerpt are a reminder that paleography — the study of handwritten documents — 'is not always an exact or precise science,' said Dr. Stephanie Trigg, Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of Melbourne in Australia, 'especially in the transmission of English and other vernacular texts without the standardised spelling and abbreviations of Latin.' Focusing on the sermon is also important because this type of allusion to a popular epic was highly unusual, Trigg, who was not involved in the research, told CNN in an email. 'The authors are right to draw attention to the way the sermon seems to be quoting medieval popular culture: this is not all that common,' Trigg said. 'It helps disturb some traditional views about medieval piety.' When the preacher used the Song of Wade in his sermon, it was clear that he expected his audience to accept the reference 'as a recognisable element of popular culture: a meme,' Falk said. 'By studying this sermon in depth we get a wonderful insight into the resonances that such popular literature had across culture.' Romantic and Fantastic This new perspective on Wade's saga doesn't mean that it was based exclusively in realism. While there are no other known excerpts of the Song of Wade, references to Wade in texts spanning centuries offer details fantastic enough to delight fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic 'Lord of the Rings.' 'In one romance text, it's said that (Wade) slays a dragon,' Falk said. 'There is local folklore in Yorkshire, recorded by John Leland in the 1530s, that he was of gigantic stature.' Other texts stated that Wade's father was a giant and that his mother was a mermaid, he added. In fact, chivalric romance from this period frequently incorporated elements of fantasy, Trigg said. In the chivalric literary tradition, 'romances often draw on mythological creatures and the supernatural,' and the distinction between chivalric romances and mythology 'is not always rigorously made in medieval literature,' she added. Still, aligning the Song of Wade more closely with medieval romances clears up long-standing confusion over allusions to Wade by Geoffrey Chaucer, during scenes of courtly intrigue in 'Merchant's Tale' and 'Troilus and Criseyde.' 'Chaucer referring to a Beowulf-like 'dark-age' warrior in these moments is weird and confusing,' Falk said. 'The idea that Chaucer is referring to a hero of medieval romance makes a lot more sense.' While the Song of Wade has faded into obscurity, its appearance in the medieval sermon and in Chaucer's work hints that for centuries the legend was a staple of popular culture in medieval England, even though there was no definitive text preserving the entire tale. As its popularity waned, much of it vanished for good. 'By the eighteenth century there were no known surviving texts and nobody seemed to know the story,' Wade said. 'Part of the enduring allure is the idea of something that was once part of common knowledge suddenly becoming 'lost.'' By Mindy Weisberger.
