If you are fond of Justin Somper’s Vampirates series or Jerry Jenkins many books in his Left Behind: the Kids series, you are likely to enjoy D. Alan Hewitt’s The Adventures of Pegleg the Pirate and Friends. Hewitt veers from a contemporary setting to a world of imagination with a unique and enticing blend of religion, adventure, and fantasy.

Because of the characters’ ages, the book would appeal most strongly to a fifth through eighth grade audience. Younger listeners would enjoy the rollicking adventure. Teens and adults would find humor and a sense of reality in the writing style and contemporary issues that are more subtle elements of the novel.

Pegleg and his crewmates are evangelists on a mission to spread God’s word to some very unlikely souls in some very unusual locations. Pegleg and his cohorts are children with disabilities who use those disabilities to their advantage. Each is also blessed with a gift that enables the group to accomplish some rather miraculous feats in some extremely challenging situations.

Not only do the characters that the group encounters, including a group of cannibals, have some lessons to learn, but Pegleg and his friends have personal issues to recognize and overcome.

Hewitt provides wholesome fare for a wide audience of readers and even includes a few touches of historical fiction. Stay tuned for Little Pegleg the Pirate: Burned at the Stake and Little Pegleg the Pirate Meets the Destroyer highly anticipated sequels to the original. ( )

I received this book from the Member Giveaways on Library Thing. I thought it was a decent book.

This book is about a group of friends on a mission to who knows where. The friends had to be willing to rely on God for directions. I appreciated the allegory.

I would recommend it to a jr. high/high school age group. I know that these stories were born on the way to church. I can't say that I liked the entire book, but it was okay. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. It's full of Adventure and learning even though one does not realized one is learning. He takes the disabilities of the children and use it to their advantage and give them hope and confidence in their journey. They meet many adventures with skepticism until each one realizes that they have a special gift they can use to escape or get through to get to the next phase to reach the treasure. I recommend this book even to read to children, It builds upon friendship, hope, faith and learning how to find God's will. ( )