Strong Winds series allusion to Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series as well as other works, particularly R.L. Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha". Cassandra Jardine, reviewing for "The Daily Telegraph", wrote ""The Salt-Stained Book"... is not just a homage to the Swallows and Amazons stories. Donny and Anna, Jones's fictional characters, live in the contemporary world, escaping social workers, rather than pirates. There's far more emotion than in Ransome's books" but "they share the same confident, risk-taking spirit..." Amanda Craig, reviewing "The Salt-stained Book" for "The Times" "...wasn't sure about the historical framing device that gives the novel
Children of the Red King Speculative Fiction Database catalogues the whole as the "Charlie Bone Universe" series. Children of the Red King Children of the Red King is a series of eight children fantasy school and adventure novels written by British author Jenny Nimmo, first published by Egmont 2002 to 2009. It is sometimes called "the "Charlie Bone" series" after its main character. A series of five books was announced in advance, completed in 2006, and sometimes the books were called the "Red King Quintet" until its continuation. A prequel is in progress, "Chronicles of the Red King", whose second volume was published April 2012.