The Jolly Regina (The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters #1)

by Kara Lareau (Author) Jen Hill (Illustrator)

The Jolly Regina (The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters #1)

In the spirit of A Series of Unfortunate Events and the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters will captivate middle-grade readers looking for humor, hijinks, and a swashbuckling good time. Meet Jaundice and Kale Bland, two sisters who avoid excitement at any cost. Together, they patiently await the return of their parents, who left on an errand years ago and have never returned.

One day, the Bland sisters are kidnapped by an all-female band of pirates. They're unwillingly swept into a high-seas romp that might just lead to solving the mystery of what happened to their parents. With whimsical illustrations and Roald Dahl-esque wit, The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters is the visually stunning, laugh-out-loud funny start to a new series for readers who are looking for an anything-but-bland adventure.

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Kirkus

LaReau serves her humor dry, adding some serious swashbuckling for good measure...Meanwhile Hill's pen-and-ink cartoons give the book precisely the right strange and silly tone.

Publishers Weekly

Kale and Jaundice Bland, twin sisters who live in the town of Dullsville, are quite content with their lives darning socks, eating plain oatmeal, and reading the dictionary for fun. They aren't even concerned about their parents, who left to run an errand several years earlier and never returned. After the girls are kidnapped by Deadeye Delilah, captain of a band of all-female pirates, they are thrust into an adventure that involves their missing parents, questionable stews, and Deadeye Delilah's nemesis, Captain Ann Tennille. Deadpan dialogue helps the sisters live up to their surname ("I hope they have some salve on hand, wherever we're going," notes Kale, as the girls are hauled off in a chafe-inducing burlap sack), but there's no shortage of the kind of "Serious, Life-Threatening Peril" that the twins typically avoid. Filled with puns, intrigue, and ample evidence that women make excellent—and ruthless—pirates, it's a promising introduction to the Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters series. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. Author's agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary. Illustrator's agent: Anne Moore Armstrong, Bright Agency. (Jan.)

Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

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Kara Lareau
Kara LaReau is the author of a number of picture books, including Ugly Fish, Mr. Prickles, and Otto: The Boy Who Loved Cars, all illustrated by Scott Magoon. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her family.

Matt Myers is the illustrator of E-I-E-I-O: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm with a Little Help from a Hen by Judy Sierra, and Bartholomew Biddle and the Very Big Wind by Gary Ross, as well as many other books for young readers. Matt Myers lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781419721366
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Amulet Books
Publication date
January 10, 2017
Series
Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters
BISAC categories
JUV019000 - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories
JUV013070 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Siblings
JUV001020 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure | Pirates
Library of Congress categories
Humorous stories
Adventure and adventurers
Adventure stories
Sisters
Missing persons
Kidnapping
Pirates
JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Siblings
JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories
JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / Pirat

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