The Night Pirates by Peter Harris

I wasn't sure about this book at first - I've never really been particularly into pirates and nor have either of my children - but then one night I decided to read it and I loved it.

The pirates of the title are "rough, tough, little girl pirates" who turn up at Tom's house and take him on an adventure. It turns out they want to use the front of his house to disguise their pirate ship while they go and steal treasure from some grown-up pirates.

The illustrations by Deborah Allwright are lovely and the gentle rhymes make it easy for children to read themselves.

The gentle humour makes my boys laugh (particularly the grown-up pirate threatening to tell his mummy) and I particularly enjoy the feisty girl pirates - my oldest son loves reading about girls and I like that these girls aren't doing stereotypically girly things. A really sweet book.