A boy can’t wait for his father to return each summer.  His dad was a great pirate and would tell tales of the crew and their terrific adventures aboard their ship called Hope.  One summer, his father did not return home.  After receiving a telegram, his mother told him they were going to take a trip to see his dad.  They did not end up at the sea as he expected.  They ended up in Belgium.  He learned his father was a miner, not a pirate, and the mine in which he had been working collapsed, killing many.  His father was not dead, but the boy’s faith in his dad, the pirate, did.  When his father returned home to stay, the boy loved him as much as before, but still did not understand why his dad lied.  Later, when a letter arrived saying the mine was closing, the boy’s family returned to Belgium.  The boy noticed, for the first time, his dad’s boarding house was named “Hope”, which shook when the wind blew, like a ship on the seas.  His father had always wanted to be a sailor but could find no jobs on the sea.  When meeting his dad’s old friends, the boy noticed the similarities between them and the “sailors” in his dad’s stories.  Then he knew, his dad was, and always had been, a great pirate.  Imagining life on the seas had saved his dad and his “crew” when they had to find work underground.  An author’s note tells how, after WWII, many Italian workers could only find work as miners in Marcinelle, Belgium.  In 1956, a coal mine fire is remembered as one of Italy’s worst mining catastrophes.  Quarello’s expressive pencil and watercolor illustrations are a great match with this poignant tale of the love and imagination of a young boy’s father.