By Rachel Lawson
The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate has the kind of publishing history you find with Joy Cowley’s most enduring stories.
The tale of the fierce little woman who walked up and down the jetty playing her bagpipes to the seagulls was originally published in 1984 as a school reader. Gecko Press released a picture book with illustrations by Sarah Davis in 2010, which went on to become one of our best-loved books in the New Zealand market.
Now over 40 years after its first release, the story has an international life.
Japanese publisher Tokuma Shoten bought translation rights and commissioned Miho Satake to illustrate their Japanese edition published last year. And these fresh new illustrations are now travelling the world.
You can read about Miho Satake’s illustration of the book here.
This month we release Joy’s story for the first time in the United States with a new blue ocean, fierce young family, and pirate straight from Treasure Island. There’s a hint of Studio Ghibli and a seascape that reflects all of the story’s emotion—tranquility, loneliness, fear, confidence and comfort.
For New Zealand readers, it’s a new visual interpretation to enjoy, released alongside a translation into te reo Māori by Karena Kelly.
Like the best stories everywhere, Joy Cowley’s The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate travels across oceans, languages and generations.
