On the Story Sea (9781743583531) by Danny Parker

It was the weekend, and Lola was going to a fancy-dress party.
    But she had nothing to wear to a fancy-dress party!
    She did have an old princess dress in the back of her closet.
    But when Lola dug it up, she saw a big square cut out from the front of it.
    Lola smiled. Oh, that’s right! She’d cut it out to make a blanket for her toys. She didn’t really like princesses these days, anyway.
    Hunting around in her cupboard, she found some long stripy socks, and an old pair of jean shorts that she had almost grown out of.

    She also found some of her mum’s old scarves, and a belt.
    It was hopeless !
    Just then, her brother Nick looked into her room. ‘What are you going to wear to the party?’ he asked.
    Lola shrugged.
    â€˜I know,’ Nick snorted, ‘you can pretend you’re one of the ugly sisters from Peter Pan .’
    Lola rolled her eyes.
    â€˜Or you could go as the ugly duckling from Where the Wild Things Are !’ he said gleefully.
    Then he bounded off down the stairs.
    â€˜You’re muddling up your stories!’ Lola called after him.
    She slumped onto her bed next to her favourite toy, Buddy.
    Buddy was a learn-to-dress clown, with lots of zippers and poppers, buckles and buttons.
    â€˜Easy for you,’ she told him. ‘You could just go as yourself. A clown!’
    Lola was tired of looking for a costume. And anyway, the party was hours away.
    She had much better things to do.
    At the end of the bed was her toy box. But this was no ordinary toy box. Oh no .
    This was Lola’s magical toy box.
    Lola picked up Buddy and climbed inside her toy box. Then she carefully closed the lid.
    The toy box filled with light and started to shake. Lola held onto Buddy as they jiggled around like a baby’s rattle.
    She squeezed her eyes shut.
    Then, as suddenly as it had started, the shaking stopped. The lights went off again. Everything was still.
    Lola took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and climbed out.
    She had climbed into her toy box, but she had climbed out of …

She had climbed out of a magnificent treasure chest, on the deck of an enormous ship!
    â€˜Wow!’ shouted Lola. ‘Where in the Kingdom are we?’
    She had to shout because the wind was blowing very loudly.
    Buddy climbed out of the toy box behind Lola, clutching his hat with both hands.
    â€˜Bless my buttons!’ he yelled. ‘I think we are on a ship!’
    Lola laughed. She wasn’t sure she would ever get used to seeing her favourite toy come alive. Or hearing the funny way he spoke!

    â€˜I can see we are on a ship!’ Lola shouted at Buddy. ‘But where are we going?’
    Her magic toy box always brought them to the Kingdom. It was a special place where toys came when they were not being played with at home.
    Above Lola and Buddy were tall masts and huge sails. The sails were billowing in the wind.
    â€˜Let’s get out of the wind,’ yelled Buddy, pointing to a small wooden door. ‘That’s probably the door to the ship’s cabin.’
    Lola and Buddy held hands and leaned into the wind, taking one step at a time towards the cabin door.
    But the wind was very strong. It was tough going.
    â€˜This wind is amazing!’ Lola shouted.
    Then, with no warning at all, the wind dropped. Completely .
    Lola and Buddy tumbled onto the deck in a big heap of girl and toy.
    Lola gasped as she sat up.
    Right there, in front of her, was a pair of boots.
    Big leather boots.
    Big leather pirate boots!
    Lola looked up. Wearing those big pirate boots was the most awesome pirate Lola had ever seen.

‘Hello there,’ said the pirate. ‘I am Pirate Sal, at your service.’
    Lola clambered to her feet.
    She recognised Pirate Sal at once. Lola had had a whole set of pirate puppets when she was little.
    She thought she’d lost them forever. Actually, she’d totally forgotten about them until … um, that very minute.
    They must have been in