How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen

How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake I knew how great Russell Hoban was, and I knew, vaguely, that he had written a kids' book with the thrillingly promising title of How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen. So why did it take me so long to track down a copy? I don't know, but when I finally did, it exceeded even my highest expectations, from the captain's preposterous (but somehow believable) sporting competitions to the spot-on anarchy of Quentin Blake's illustrations. And as for its sequel, A Near Thing for Captain Najork, which we also happily have in stock, all I will say is that it features a jam-powered frog as well as the arm-wrestling exploits of Tom's Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong Najork (she recently married the captain). (Ages 5 to infinity)