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THE WONDROUS TALE OF LAVENDER WOLFE

Karen Foxlee

An inventive and playful fantasy-adventure set in an alternative Dickensian world about an abandoned girl, a friendly ogress and a terrible curse from the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of Dragon Skin and Lenny's Book of Everything.
Lavender Wolfe is a clapperdogeon, pickpurse and all alone on a wharf when she is snatched by Big Agatha and thrown into the galley of a pirate ship, The Good Marchioness.

Disguised as a boy (for only boys may live in the galley) and renamed Hans Whitby, Lavender has to make her home among the Rats. However, The Good Marchioness is no ordinary pirate ship. Captained by Odyessia Pleasant, a fierce pirate with long blonde hair, violet eyes and a bird's wing in the place of an arm, the crew are on a desperate voyage to find and return the lost treasure of The Marigold before all those who sail within the cursed pirate ship are turned to sand. Lavender included.

Lavender is quick-witted and sharp as a tack, and as her magic starts to be revealed she finds herself coming under the arresting gaze of Captain Pleasant. Will Lavender help break the curse? Or will she be just another victim of this story within a story within a story, her true identity lost to the sands of time?

An adventure as big as the ocean and as full of love as your heart. All aboard!

Karen Foxlee grew up in the Australian outback mining town Mount Isa and has written many acclaimed children's books including Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy, A Most Magical Girl, and the internationally successful and multi-award-winning Lenny's Book of Everything and Dragon Skin. www.karenfoxlee.com
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Published 2025-11-18 by Allen & Unwin Children's

Comments

A teaspoon of skullduggery, a hearty dollop of swashbuckling and a barrelful of heart ... This magical tale will make any young landlubber long for adventure at sea.

Bold, original and gloriously fantastical.

A fabulous magical quest, strange and wonderful.

Exquisite. A marvel of imagination and adventure.