Pirates, Bats, and Dragons

A Science Adventure

By Mike Davis

Review by Andrew

On an Arab island full of mysterious animals, plants and geology, Jack, Conor and Julia are attacked and almost eaten by giant carnivorous crabs! The story is about three science students and their science teacher. They want to survey life on the island and down in the caves of the island of Socotra. Socotra is an isolated Arab island that supports life of all kinds imaginable, like dragon’s blood trees, unique bats, giant lizards, and the big scary crabs.

Pirates, Bats and Dragons is the second story by Mike Davis. There are great illustrations by William Simpson. Science is a big part of this story. The science students go to an Arab island to study its mysterious limestone caves and animal life. The students want to design and test science inventions they are working on. One is a bat-like flying vehicle that could be used for planetary exploration. Another is research on how to use plants for medicinal purposes.

To interested science students, Socotra is too good to be ignored. Jack, Conor and Julia, and their Arab science advisor, Dr. Hasan, journey to the island to study it. They also hope to find and learn from a local island witch, Takra. Each student hopes to use science to study the island life and geography. This will also help them with inventions, papers and research once they get back home. Jack, Conor and Julia end up learning more than they guessed they would. They find out that Tatra’s island people predict that a “great poison” is coming to the island and Tatra asks them to help her prevent this. The adventure gets wilder after that. There is a modern-day pirate who is Tatra’s brother, a Delta Force trying to capture Tatra’s brother, and a ship with a doomsday cargo heading for the island. The student scientists have to use their knowledge and skill to be sure that doomsday doesn’t come.

A great part of the story involves the search for the witch, Tatra. The students need to talk to her about a legend regarding “dragons” that live on the island. They go to the 1,000 foot cliffs on one side of the island to find her. They climb up from the beach toward the cliffs and notice many large, green land crabs that begin to follow them up from the beach. Jack, Conor and Julia start moving faster when several crabs crawl up to them and start pinching. Julia’s pet civet, Weasel, falls out of her backpack during the rough climb. When Julia tries to chase and grab him, both of them are attacked by the crabs and swarmed. Jack and Conor pull Julia out from the pile of crabs but she is scratched, pinched and bleeding. They lift her up to carry her and soon all three of them have crabs hanging from their ears, cheeks, hair and lips and they seem to get wilder as the kids bleed - they appear to be carnivorous and want food! The students need to get away and to run for the water where the crabs won’t follow. Running, plucking off and tossing away the clinging crabs, they hear a commanding voice that stops the crabs. They have found the witch of the legend and survived the carnivorous crabs. There is much more excitement in this science adventure story!

Science is one of my favorite subjects. If you like science, this is a book you’ll really like. The students are smart and use their science skills to solve problems. They also face dangers together like good friends do and even risk their lives for each other. It is an exciting adventure about good friends who are smart about taking care of each other and solving problems. The story has scary animals, beautiful places, and mysterious places in it. It also uses the adventures to show how science is important. I recommend it.