Pirate Jamboree

Reviewed by: Deidre Walsh - Goodall Library, Sanford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 13, 2016

Review

Ahoy mateys. Let your imagination loose. A group of neighborhood children are playing pirate and riding their bikes around the neighborhood. Suddenly they are on the high seas having pirate adventures. The children are now pirates - Blackbeard, Beigebeard, Sharktooth - to name just a few. They are gathering for their annual jamboree and hilarity ensues. Soon the pirates see the most fearsome ship on the sea, the S.S. Clean Your Room, with Mrs. Jones at the helm. All the pirates jump ship and run. All except one, Peg Leg, Mrs. Jones' son. It is dinnertime and all the pirate kids have to go to bed soon. Back to reality for now. The text is told in rhyming quatrains on most pages. It flows nicely, but falters a bit in a couple of places. Still, it reads well. And kids will enjoy the rhyme. The illustrations humorously depict and enhance the text. They are bold and colorful. I'm not sure how the illustrations were created, but they are trademark Teague, down to the same people and animals used in many of his other books. Pair with "No-Good-Do-Good Pirates" by Jim Kraft, "How I Became a Pirate" by Melinda Long, and "Shiver Me Letters: a Pirate ABC" by June Sobel for a rousing pirate story time. Purchase anywhere where pirate stories are popular.

Overall Book Score: very good