The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones

Mabel Jones #1

by Will Mabbitt

Have you ever been kidnapped by pirates in the middle of the night and forced to walk the Greasy Pole of Certain Death?

Or challenged a giant grizzly bear to a milk-drinking contest?

Or gone on a dangerous quest in search of mysterious treasure?

What's that? You haven't?

Then the unlikely adventures of Mabel Jones are almost certainly too exciting, thrilling and terrifying for you. Put this book down at once!*

*Not really – I just have to say that in case any grown-ups are reading. Luckily this writing is too small for their old eyes to see properly. What you should really do is start reading this book immediately because it will make you laugh so hard that chips will come down your nose.

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Humor, Middle Grade, Pirates, Fiction, Childrens

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 2015

Reviews

[Rahaf Potrosh]

تنام وانت طفل صغير هادئ البال والأحوال ، و تستيقظ لتجد نفسك قد تحولت إلى ..... قرصان 🙄
هذا ما حصل مع مابيل فقط والحمد لله وذلك طبعاً بسبب ارتكابها لجريمة عظيمة لا تغتفر وكان ولا بد من معاقبتها 😂

الجميل لدى الأطفال هو انهم لا يملكون وقت للخوف لان الفضول لديهم له الغلبة دوماً

لا أعرف كيف تسللت هذه الصغيرة إلى ليلي ولكنها رفيقتها كانت ظريفة ، وكان يمكن أن تكون أجمل لولا الترجمة السيئة للغاية

[Robin Stevens]

Delightfully nasty, bonkers piratical fun. I laughed out loud on the tube!

[Bethany]

I have to give at least four stars to any book that keeps my early-to-bed 10 yr old son up late into the night reading "just one more" chapter and has him talking non-stop at breakfast. I read little bits and pieces with him and then went back to read it on my own to the get the whole picture. I liked it after the second chapter. It's a fun story with plenty of little boy humor- maybe just ever so slightly too far into "gross" for this mom (I still laughed)- and interesting characters. We talked in pirate for a week at my house. There's just the right amount of foreshadowing to keep it from being one-dimensional. I liked all the phonetic spellings, different typefaces and illustrations...that really added to the story. My son has already read the second in the series and said he liked it just a tiny bit less than this one. Read if you want a little adventure!

[Luna's Little Library]

This book is perfect for all ages. It works as a book to read to young kids, it works as book for children to read (because they’ll think its brilliant) and it works for grown-ups because it’s so much fun. That’s FUN with CAPITALS.

Mabel Jones has done performed the deed and thus ended up being kidnapped by the crew of The Feroshus Maggot. Her only chance of getting home is helping the captain, it’s also the only way she won’t get thrown overboard.

Will Mabbit tells us Mabel’s adventure is a wonderful way, I loved the way he engaged with the reader. This is partly why I think this book would be so great to read out loud. The other is because just imagine the voices for the pirates you could do!

So yes, The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones my first major book endorsement for 2016.

[Heather Moore]

Listened to the audiobook with my 12 year old. Solidly silly fun and we highly recommend reading the hard copy book alongside with the audio. The illustrations and font play in the book add so much whimsy and adventure, and the audio narrator does a fantastic job with the telling of the story.

[Ashley Bunker]

Definitely a favorite for the kiddos- they love it!

[Lisa]

Mabel Jones is kidnapped by Pirates when they witness her performing The Deed (picking her nose and eating it) but she is saved from walking the Greasy Pole of Certain Death when they realize that she can read and spell. Now, she must help them find the men who have the pieces of X so that she can open the porthole and return home.

This is a delightful book! Mabel is strong and resourceful, the writing is brilliant and the adventure is exciting. The text layout is a lot of fun, lots of design and font changes. This would be a great addition to either an elementary or middle school library.

Cross posted to http://kissthebook.blogspot.com CHECK IT OUT!

[Suzanna E. Leonard]

Leuk leesboek vol avontuur. Een piratenverhaal met een meisje in pyjama in de hoofdrol. Veel actie en humor. Grappige tekstopmaak. Het leesniveau van de kinderen moet wel redelijk zijn (minstens derde leerjaar).

[Bookish Devil]

THE Best adventure book I've read so far !

[Andrea Way]

This was a funny, gross, charming, delightful and high adventurous tale. Have this book on my shelf for some time. Really glad I gave this a ago.

[Bridget]

Just a bit too long. Loved the writing style... with sim much voice. I listened to it on CD, and that’s why I finished the book...just magnificent reading by Toby Jones. He made it worth every page!

[Tamara York]

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up. This reminded me of a cross between Fortunately, the Milk (which is amazing, go read it now), and The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates. Like Fortunately, the Milk, the best way to experience this, in my opinion, is to listen to the audiobook while following along in the book, taking in the fantastic illustrations and font play throughout. The story took a creepy turn with crypts and undead skeletons that was off-putting for me. Also, the switch into narrator voice was too frequent, so that the story telling was a bit all over the place. But kids who love silly, adventurous, piratical, creepy (but not scary) tales will love this book.

[Dalal]

مابيل جونز فتاة صغيرة تأخذنا باجواء مليئة بالمغامرة والخطر بعد ان اختطفها القراصنة واحتفظو بها بعد ان وجدوها ذات فائدة كبيرة لهم وذلك بعد ان استطاعت ان تجمع اجزاء الاكس الخاصة بوالد القبطان سبليت .... وكل ذلك كي تعود لعالمها الهادئ بين والديها واصدقائها .....

[Kali]

Fun book! This could be a read out loud but it is important to read the words because there is a lot that goes into how the words appear on the page. I made my 8 yo follow along and read every other page. I liked the use of advanced words in a book that is appropriate for younger children, something that is a challenge to find.

[Laura Feldon]

A quirky series I found.

[Sunny]

Dear author,
This book is so exiting!
In my home, i was scared of silence, because it means danger was coming.
Are you afraid of monsters?
Marble jones was so brave!
I liked to be a pirate! I am scared that when i throw up on a ship.
Thank you for writing these books! Hope you made more!

[Aati]

Loved it!

[Jennifer]

I thought this book was dreadful. It begins with young Mabel getting kidnapped out of her room one night by a pirate after she picks her nose and eats her own booger. This is "the deed" that binds you to the pirate captain for life. She is taken to the pirate ship, The Feroshus Maggot captained by a one eyed wolf with a false leg and a loaded pistol in his underwear.

The crew is made up of different animals. They are horrified to learn that Mabel is a girl because "girls can't be pirates." But she can read so they don't kill her. If she helps them find the treasure they'll let her go home. There's lots of pirate fights. At one point she falls into an old coffin and gets licked by a dead sheep. Spoiler alert if you read on.

She finally realizes she is really in the future where there are no humans, only talking animals. The treasure is really a time machine that can wake the evil dead. The captain wants to be leader of the wicked dead (which includes politicians).There's a mutiny and the captain dies and Mabel escapes thru the time porthole and back home to her bedroom.
I have a hard time recommending this book for children. There's lots of talk about farting, rum drinking, dirty underpants, severed hands, drinking competitions of brewed cat pee, and milk being "filth that squirts from the teat of a cow". The worst is when a pirate wants to shave his buttock cheek to get a tattoo of Mabel's face so he can think of her when he scratches his bum. There is also a drinking priest that smuggles goods in the crypt of his church.
There are so many better books out there for kids, skip this one!

[Angie]

Mabel Jones did The Deed and now she has to pay the price. What did she do? She picked her nose and ATE it and was then sucked into a portal to a world of pirates. She has to help Captain Idryss Ebenezer Split of The Feroshus Maggot find the five pieces of the X that will lead to a treasure. This involves a drinking contest involving the disgusting milk, a bit of grave robbing in an underground crypt, being swallowed by a whale and many other adventures. And Mabel does it all while wearing her pajamas.

This book was way more entertaining than I thought it would be. Of course they had me with the jacket description, but still. It was a very fun read. I loved the pirates and Mabel's spunk. I really enjoyed the illustrations and the text differences throughout the book. And the narrator was fantastic. I don't usually like third party narration like this, but it was really well done. If you need a pirate adventure set in the future with animals as the main characters this book is for you.

[Emma]

Mabel Jones was a really fun book. It reminded me of The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom which I loved.
The narration is extremely entertaining and the illustrations are fun. This book is filled with detailed descriptions that make it very easy to imagine all the gross events of the book.
The characters are also all very engaging. Mabel Jones is confident and funny. The Pirates are all quirky animals.
Since I'm a senior in high school I found it to not be as engaging as I probably would have found it a few years ago. I did not expect the ending of this book, though, so that along with all the clever dark humor made it worth the read.

[Ms. St. Jean]

(Goodreads blurb)

Have you ever picked your nose? Have you ever picked your nose and EATEN IT? Have you ever picked your nose, eaten it, and, by doing so, opened a portal to a world run by PIRATES?

Mabel Jones has.

Kidnapped, Mabel is forced to serve aboard The Feroshus Maggot with the strangest crew you’ll ever meet. And the captain—an odious wolf named Idryss Ebenezer Split—won’t let her go until she helps the pirates uncover the treasure they seek.

Mabel’s voyage takes her across the Greasy Pole of Certain Death, into the belly of a whale, and underground to a decrepit crypt. And she does it all…in pajamas!

[Liz]

3.5 stars, if I'm honest.

This was a mixed bag for my Book Club kids. A mom told me afterwards that it was her favorite book we've read so far, while one of my attendees remarked that he, "couldn't get emotionally connected to the characters at all." Both of these are extremes, I feel, as the characters were fun and endearing, but there was just too much potty humor for me to be truly amused. Still, it was entertaining and enjoyable, and overall my kids liked it.

[April]

Wow!! Listened to this book with the family on the way to Mt Rushmore. It was perfect for us. Toby Jones read it and he gets 10 stars!!! It was cute enough that my kids loved it and interesting enough that my husband even listened for a while... (he says I should give it 3 stars.) I loved the part about the milk! Thanks for writing and narrating the perfect book to brake up my 10 hours each way car ride!!

[Michelle]

A hilarious story about Mabel Jones, who commits 'The Deed' and ends up on The Feroshus Maggot (a pirate ship). I listened to the audiobook, which I highly recommend because the narrator was marvellous with voices. I loved the names - Omynus Hussh, Captain Idryss Ebenezer Split - and the use of the narrator (who stops in the middle of the action to eat a pickled onion!).

A fast-paced, humorous book that I'll be promoting enthusiastically.

[Clarissa]

Now that we are back into the schedule of "lengthy" car rides to or from school, I picked up some audiobooks for the kids and I to listen to. This one is hysterical. Truly. It is read by Toby Jones (who voices Dobby in the Harry Potter films). He is incredibly versatile and incredibly funny. It helps that Mabbitt's characters are so unique and wacky, themselves. We thoroughly enjoyed this one.

[Cin]

This book is fun and silly. I enjoyed reading this. I received a free advance reader copy through the Goodreads First Reads program. I have to say I really like the illustrations. Too bad the ARC contains illustrations for the first few chapters only. I will check out the finished version and this would make a good gift for kids.

[Jenny T]

This was an absolute treat! Most definitely a kids' book, and probably geared toward the younger crowd, this is the story of Mabel Jones, a brave little girl kidnapped by pirates. The humor is alternately macabre and juvenile (Mabel summons the pirates by picking her nose) -- and the end result is adorable. I giggled a lot.

[Chandler Ford]

The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones is a very amazing adventure book. As soon as I picked this book up I could not put it down. It is a funny book with funny pictures. It is a long read though, so don't expect to go on a 20 minute trip and read the whole book. I'm a fast reader and it took me almost 2 hours. I would recommend this book. It is probably the best book I read all June.

[Denise]

Clever and funny with incredible imagination. Illustrations are outstanding and really contribute to the book. I want to read it aloud to second graders and will with only a few tiny skips or edits. I'd say it's probably a fourth grade level for most. Even high reading kiddos and adults will enjoy it.

[Christopher Shulgan]

I read this on the strong recommendation of my eight-year-old son. It's great. Follows the format of The BFG except take out the giants and add pirates. Also reminds me a bit of Neil Gaiman's Fortunately, The Milk. Because it's so fast-paced and fun to read I think this is a really good book to use to reignite your child's interest in reading when that's falling off a bit.