How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen

By Russell Hoban, Quentin Blake (Illustrator)

Book #1 in the Captain Najork series

A boy's antics lead to a showdown with a formidable captain. Who will learn the real lesson?

4.3/5 Goodreads · 399 ratings

32 pages

$7.95Save 5%

In stock. Also at Amazon.

Bookroo's summary

Tom's playful antics drive his strict Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong to summon the formidable Captain Najork and his sportsmen. They challenge Tom to games of womble, muck, and speedball, intending to teach him a lesson. But as the games unfold, it's not Tom who ends up learning something unexpected. Will the tables turn on the stern adults, or will Tom's fooling-around finally meet its match? Dive into this humorous tale where the unexpected triumphs over the serious, leaving everyone questioning who truly needs the lesson.

From the publisher

The hilarious, classic tale about the triumph of fooling-around over humorless, no-nonsense, adult disapproval! Written and illustrated by two masters of children’s literature. Tom loves to fool around. He fools around with dropping things from bridges into rivers and he fools around with barrels in alleys. He fools around so much that his maiden aunt, Miss Fidget Wonkham-Strong (who wears an iron hat and takes no nonsense from anyone), sends for Captain Najork and his hired sportsmen to teach Tom a lesson. “Captain Najork,” says Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong, “is seven feet tall, with eyes like fire and a voice like thunder. He teaches fooling-around boys the lesson they so badly need, and it is not one that they soon forget.” Captain Najork lays down a challenge: they will play womble, muck and speedball - in that order. And it turns out not to be Tom who gets taught a lesson after all! A very funny collaboration for children by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake for kids who love to laugh (and the story contiunes in A Near Thing for Captain Najork).

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