This book is set in a mythical and superstitious world, where a town can be built from the wrecks of sunken ships, creating buildings that move as if still afloat in the ocean.

In the village of Nordlor, Captain Britt has 6 daughters. When a fortune-teller predicts his next child will be a son, he is overjoyed, but instead it is another daughter.

Oona is not like her sisters. She loves books and yearns for adventure on the high-seas, captaining her own ship to explore the world and find the magical creature called the nardoo. As her father sets sail to hunt for whales to feed the village, her mother and sisters prepare to travel south to find fortune and husbands. Rather than be married off at the tender age of 10, Oona stows away on her father’s ship.

Oona’s adventure is both physical and emotional. She wants to believe in magic, ‘because a world without magic would be a very dull world indeed.’ Wood has created a delightful story populated by magical creatures, pirates, cats who can play the fiddle and wild and stormy seas.

I was absolutely enchanted by The Girl, the Cat and the Navigator. It reminded me of fairytales I read as a child, but with a feisty, independent girl as the heroine. The book is infused with magic and wonder and adventure. Totally irresistible.!