Book excerpt: When the SOS Lifesaving Day is held on a pirate ship, Flick Foulweather wants to run down the gangplank and hide. The ocean terrifies her. Especially the sharks! Can the black cat face her fears and perform the rescue of her life? Welcome to the School of Scallywags, a boarding school for young pirates. At SOS, students live at school during the term and go home for the holidays. Each night is one big sleepover with their friends! Each new day is an adventure waiting to happen. The students at SOS don’t always get things right. But with a little encouragement from their friends and teachers, they learn that even the biggest disasters can be turned around. Each story in the SOS series focuses on a different student and explores the personal and social challenges they face. Themes for Big Splash include facing personal fears around water and learning to be brave. SOS stories are designed for developing readers in lower to middle primary school. Books in the series include both male and female protagonists. Each book has seven or eight short chapters with illustrations on every page. Readers can move up to the award-winning Scallywags series which feature the same characters in extended adventures.