Magic Marks the Spot: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates, Book 1

There's a lot of talk about killing enemies, feeding them to sea monsters, etc., but very little actual harm comes to anyone, despite sword battles and the like. In one scene, Hilary fells her opponent by throwing a can of beets at his head. In the past, one of the adult characters killed the parents of one of the kids -- they were pirates and he sank their ship.

Two adult characters fall in love early on, but it's mostly swoony and innocent as seen by the kids.

There are many references to swilling grog, but only adults are actually depicted doing so.

Parents need to know that Magic Marks the Spot, first volume of The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series, is for the most part a rollicking, lighthearted adventure, with a very appealing tween girl, would-be pirate Hilary Westfield, as its lead character. Piracy here is mostly about the quest for treasure (especially magic objects), loyalty to one's friends, and a general aversion to authority figures. In contrast to many, more boy-oriented pirate tales, there's little here in the way of gore or grossout. While there's much talk of killing foes and feeding them to sea monsters, even epic sword fights seem to end with little injury to anyone; sailors tossed overboard simply swim back to their own ship. Still, there are darker elements: The parents of one kid died when their boat was sunk by the father of another, and a character must deal with the fact that her father's an actual villain. Many characters show an unexpected side, for good and ill.