Castaways of the Flying Dutchman

My mom gave me this book to read; it's a children's book by the prolific author of the Redwall series (which I take to be medieval adventures stories, only with mice). It was a fun (if very simplistic) little book but the thing I enjoyed most was how it really brought up my inner child, who just was blown away by this one aspect of the story. It's one thing that our 13 year old mute protagonist had had a horrible childhood and ended up as the cook's slave on a ship bound for Tierra del Fuego but saved the life of a scroungy dog who becomes his constant companion; the captain of the ship goes bat-shit crazy, about kills everyone trying to get around Cape Horn at the wrong time of year, and curses God and all his works. But then an angel from the heavens damns the captain and his crew to floating on this ghost ship in torment for eternity yet saves the boy and his dog, setting them the task to use their newly immortal lives to travel the world and help others. (The situation kind of struck me as being like both Cordelia and Angel from the TV show Angel alive in the same young boy, taking guidance from the Powers That Be and helping the helpless, only without the boob job or the personal history of being an evil blood-sucking vampire.) So here's the thing: the boy wakes up on the shore with his dog and discovers not only that he can talk for the first time in his life, but that he and his dog can now communicate with each other using only their minds. (The dog turns out to have a keen intelligence and a first-rate sense of humor, too.) And the dog in his turn is able to communicate with other animals, even if they do have rather goofy tendencies to be obsessed with butterflies (the cat) or are not very good conversationalists (the sheep).

I enjoyed this exchange:

Neb [the boy] patted the Labrador's head, passing him a thought. "Haven't you taught these sheep to speak yet?"

Den [the dog] shook his head in disgust. "All they know is to eat, sleep, and look stupid. 'Baaah' is about all I can get out of them!"

Rain was starting in earnest. Neb hunched his shoulders against the onslaught, hiding a smile. "I remember when every second thought from you was either a wuff or a gurrrr."

Den kept his gaze on the sheep milling about in the pen. "'Wuff' and 'gurrr' are important expressions to dogs. But 'baaaaah' or 'maaaahah' - sheep don't even know what that means."