The Unsinkable Walker Bean

The Unsinkable Walker Bean (Walker Bean #1)

Aaron Renier

First Second, 2010

$13.99, Paperback

978-1596434530

April 25^th, 2012

Genre: Adventure

Age: 9+

Description: Walker Bean promises his deathly ill grandpa to accompany his father on his next sea faring trip in order to return a cursed skull back to an island where it belongs with the evil lobster ladies who own it. However, lots of people know about the skill and its supposed powers and Walker accidentally lets the skull get stolen by a young pirate girl. After an attack on his father’s ship, he awakens to find himself aboard the pirate vessel and makes friends with Shiv, who rescued him from the water. Shiv hides him and promises to help. Unfortunately, when the captain discovers him their boat is nearly destroyed by one of the lobster ladies. Frozen solid by the sun, Walker uses his inventive mind to give the boat wheels so it can get off land and make it back into the sea before the lobster lady awakens again and attacks more. Once back in the water they head for the land where the evil Dr. Patches wants to sell the skull to people willing to pay a high price for it. Luckily for Walker, he has friends who help him concoct a crazy plan to turn the boat around and head for the islands without anyone noticing they’ve changed direction. In the midst of another epic battle with the lobster woman, Gen, the pirate girl, accidentally looks at the skull and lives. She discovers that the lobster women aren’t bad—they are trying to save the powers of the skull from getting into the wrong hands. Soon the ship goes down and they plan to continue their adventure.  

Opinion: The story is interesting. The lobster ladies and their back story is creepy. Unfortunately, the art is a bit old-fashioned but so it the story (except no real date is given). The book leaves on a massive cliffhanger. I have no idea if a second volume is ever going to see the light of day since this book was published in 2010. If there is no sequel this book, which I thought was a stand-alone title, turns out to be a big waste of time and a disappointment.