Oh, you missed a stinker. When you ran your poll, I thought, ah-hah, she discovered A High Wind in Jamaica by, IIRC Richard Hughes. The byline on the inside when I checked it out of the library in eighth grade said something like "An adventure where children join pirates on the high seas". Okay, that's...not wrong, but what I read was a peculiarly written dumpster fire that manages to be cruel to kids AND animals, and for extra special points, racist enough for even thirteen year old me to notice.