Having an invisible magical friend proves very helpful to young Anna, the heroine of this second book in a projected series by New Brunswick writer K.V. Johansen. Torrie, the magical creature who is “the oldest of the Old Things of the Wild Forest,” tells the story, although, rather cleverly, this isn’t revealed until the second chapter. The opening chapter, and the leadership in all the following adventures, belongs to Anna, a young sea captain and master mariner. Torrie is her good friend and sidekick; he’s courageous, humorous, and loyal, as well as conveniently invisible.

Torrie sails to the South Seas on the small ex-pirate ship that Anna inherited from her piratical grandfather, to rescue Anna’s father, who was a respectable merchant captain until his capture by the Pirate Queen Nevilla. The rescue mission to Queen Nevilla’s dungeons is complicated by a storm at sea, the capture of a princely hostage, a quest for buried treasure, and other episodic adventures, many reminiscent of the plot of the first book in this series, Torrie & the Dragon. Familiarity in a series is no real problem, however, and Johansen sustains the story with lots of action and simple, humorous exchanges among her characters.

Torrie & the Pirate Queen has a contemporary sensibility in ignoring traditional gender restrictions – Captain Anna, her ship’s bow master, and the chief pirate are all female – and in treating all the human characters as basically good. When people behave badly, their motivation is explained, and only creatures like sea snakes and dragons seem to merit violent deaths. While some episodes and secondary characters are handled in a perfunctory manner, Torrie is an engaging and reassuring narrator who can always be counted on to rescue the situation. Although Torrie’s size and appearance are puzzlingly variable (he’s supposed to be invisible, not a shape-shifter), Delezenne’s lively pictures add to the lighthearted appeal of this fantasy.