People in the shipping business often get all sorts of questions from their children about what they do.
Such questions from his youngsters, Lucas, Alex and Gregory, inspired journalist Thrasy Petropoulos to write his first children's story.
Max Panamax and the Western Key follows its main characters — Max the ageing bulker, Captain Cadmus and new cabin boy Leo — in a race around the world that involves escapades in exotic places. Just like real shipping!
Adventures range from pirates in the Caribbean to encounters with tribes in Panama, a female acupuncturist near the Yellow River and dodgy ship scrappers in Cox’s Bazar.
Jauntily written episodes should captivate children aged eight to 13 with a mix of fun and surprise about shipping. However, it has to be said that some of the depictions are slightly old-fashioned in terms of political correctness.
Petropoulos, British-born and now based in Athens, was inspired to start writing a short story for his children because Lucas was passionate about ships, particularly the Titanic. But he enjoyed following the route across the Atlantic so much that he continued the journey through the Panama Canal and beyond.
In response to any criticism of political correctness, Petropoulos said his intent was to involve modern concerns, and having been to many of the places where Max ventures, his characters have borrowed — but never stolen — from many of the personalities he met along the way.
Matters of importance
“It was really important to me to touch on some important issues in our world: respecting the sea, whaling and over-fishing, working conditions at scrapyards, the danger of culture clashes — but also everything that unites us on different sides of the world,” he said.
“That internal conflict can be a driving force to finding yourself. But most of all I just wanted it to be fun and lighthearted and, as a story, not take itself too seriously.”
