Gregory Mone introduced young readers to Maurice Reidy, a.k.a Fish, in 2010. “Fish” was Mone’s first book for children. He has since gone on to become a New York Times best-selling author, and has collaborated on a series of children’s books with Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Last year a revised version of “Fish,” newly titled “Sea of Gold,” was released by Abrams. (Scholastic Press originally published the book.) Now Mone, a West Tisbury resident, has come out with a sequel, “Sea of Gold: The Duke’s Curse,” also published by Abrams. And while it isn’t at all necessary to read the original “Fish” or “Sea of Gold” to enjoy “The Duke’s Curse,” I don’t know why you would deprive yourself of the swashbuckling pleasure.
What I didn’t know before reading these books was that most pirates don’t know how to swim, and that the lowliest job on a pirates’ ship was having to clean the seats of easement, a job in which Fish is often tasked.
As for Fish, he started his young life as an Irish farm boy who discovered he had an affinity for swimming. At the age of 11, he left the family farm to live and work with his uncle in the city. While delivering an important parcel filled with mysterious coded coins, he was chased and attacked by a boy who ran off with his loot. In pursuit, Fish found himself sailing off on a pirate ship named the Scurvy Mistress.
“Returning to Fish was challenging at first, because the characters I created in subsequent kids’ novels were similar in age, and occasionally shared some of his interests, but they were very, very different in terms of their hearts and brains — what drove them and how their minds worked,” said Mone. “I caught myself having Fish think or feel something that another one of my characters would think or feel. But before too long I got back in the swing of it with Fish. He’s one of my favorite characters.”
He’s one of my favorite characters too. Fish is a boy who would choose to walk a plank rather than swish a sword, and is inclined to make friends with the pirates, who by trade aren’t in the business of making friends. Fish, whose values are entirely contrary to our former president and new president-elect, sacrifices himself to save his tormentors, and questions the “malleable morals” of pirates: “The treasure hunter pushed back his hat and squinted, studying Fish with deep concentration. ‘Right and wrong, good and evil—what does any of that really mean?’ To Fish it meant everything!”
Both books are filled with quirky pirates and an action-packed search for treasure, and in “The Duke’s Curse,” the hunt for a ship with emerald eyes and — as if that wasn’t enough — Utopia. Fish’s amazing swimming abilities often come in handy, and are tested to the extreme, including a hair-raising scene where he encounters a shark.
The duke of “The Duke’s Curse” is the father of a dancing sailor named Carlo, who has hexed him with a ship-sinking curse: “‘Why would he curse you?’ Nora wondered.
“‘Because he said I was a lazy, spoiled, good-for-nothing prince who wanted only to sleep and dance. To be fair, the last part was accurate.’”
Carlo, it should be noted, also has an extremely complicated relationship with his mother, Countess Marie de Bornholdt, who helms the Rat Queen.
Mone says the idea for a dancing sailor on a pirate’s ship wasn’t inspired by anyone he knew; however, “a few Island friends have taught me that everyone should dance more, including pirates.”
When Mone’s nieces and nephews were young, he’d design treasure hunts for their birthday parties: “For one of them, I got a little carried away, sank a treasure chest in six feet of water, then made them follow a map through the woods, down to the beach, and then out to sea, where they had to dive for the prize just offshore. At the end, one of my nephews suggested I write them a treasure-hunting story.”
The idea seemed like a good one. “I’d published one novel at that point, a moderately literary office comedy about a startup worker who thinks he’s the reincarnation of Einstein, and I was working on a funny reworking of the “Divine Comedy” called “Harvey Goes to Hell,” which wasn’t actually very funny,” said Mone. “Writing a pirate adventure sounded like a lovely diversion, so I turned to Fish instead, and found I much preferred going on adventures with him and his crew.”
And so began Mone’s adventure as a children’s book author, and our adventures with the magnificent Fish.
“Sea of Gold: The Duke’s Curse,” recommended for ages 8 to 11, is available locally at Edgartown Books and Bunch of Grapes. Please support Island authors and our independent bookstores.
