How I Became a Pirate
by Melinda Long
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Book Reviews of How I Became a Pirate
Book Review: Ahoy! Beware of Grand Adventure Ahead!
Summary: 5 Stars
This fun-filled, adventure fantasy about pirate life is perfect for any imaginative child. It was even selected by child judges as the winner of the 2003 Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature. Set in contemporary times, the adventure begins when five or six-year-old Jeremy Jacobs runs off with 18th century pirates who have landed on the beach. Jeremy's delight in his adventures with Captain Braid Beard and his bedraggled crew of ruffians is obvious from the colorful, humorous, cartoon style illustrations. (They are similar to those in Shannon's own No David! book and its sequels). Brimming with amusing situations and characters, the illustrations match the tone and content of Long's story perfectly. A great example is the cover where Jeremy sits gleefully on the Captain's shoulders with a pirate scarf atop his head and the Captain's parrot on his own shoulder. A lesson that "the grass isn't always greener on the other side" is provided when Jeremy begins to realize the things he misses aboard the pirate ship (i.e., being read a bedtime story and then tucked in). Highly recommended for ages 4 to 8.
I just HAD to get this book for my niece - a Peter Pan lover - for her 7th Birthday and now I'm somewhat sad that I'll no longer have it around! Perhaps I'll have to buy another for myself!
Another great, amusing pirate adventure is "Roger, the Jolly Pirate" (2004), by Brett Helquist (ISBN 0066238064).
Book Review: Arr! Can I Be a Pirate, Too?
Summary: 5 Stars
If ever there were a children's book that played into every child's foibles, dreams, and tastes, it's Melinda Long's "How I Became a Pirate."I've got to believe that just about everyone out there, young and old, will find something amusing and true to life in this fine children's offering.
A sand castle of unusual quality built by Jeremy Jacob attracts a misfit band of not-too-scary pirates in search of a master digger to help bury their ill-gotten booty. Jeremy soon finds that the pirate life is for him--staying up till all hours, saying "Arr," and foregoing vegetables. But after finding no one to tuck him in at night (in a hilarious pirate pile illustrated with great touches by David Shannon), Jeremy has second thoughts about a life on the seven seas. In the end, he gets the last laugh in a delicious little twist ending.
I will consistently go back to books like "How I Became a Pirate" for their gentle humor, wonderful illustrations, and pleasant reading that appeals to children. It's hard to go wrong with those qualities and you would go wrong if you passed up this delightful little book. I know my three year old son ate up every word and drawing in it. A surefire nominee for the 2004 Caldecott medal, in my opinion.
Enjoy!
Book Review: Aye Matey! This book finally got my son to want to read a book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love pirate talk and this book has a lot of it. But it's the perfect kind of pirate talk for young children. They don't talk about drinking rum, fighting bandits or stealing from other ships ... it talks about pillow fights, staying up late and burying treasure!
Sweet, little Jeremy Jacob spies a pirate ship while making a sand castle and goes on board to help them find a place to bury their treasure (arrrgh matey). He soon learns that the life of a pirate is the life to lead! You don't have to eat your veggies, no manners to be had and you get to stay up really late! But then he learns the down side to being a pirate and that is not being able to play soccer and being away from his family - especially at night when he's trying to find a place to sleep.
This is a very cute book and it's very well-done. The illustrations are really great and sparked other conversations. I wished that I would have had this book when I was younger. My siblings and I would have LOVED this!! But instead my children do and that's just as great.
Book Review: Doing N.C. Wyeth Proud
Summary: 1 Stars
This went immediately into heavy rotation in our two-year old's nightly reading list. And every night I have reason again to appreciate David Shannon's artwork, especially the canny ways he recycles N.C. Wyeth in his vaulting ocean skies and gauzily romantic pirate ship.
For the record I didn't appreciate the ways in which spinach and carrots were denigrated in this story, if only in passing. It's all a bit strange to our daughter, who happens to enjoy these things, then is informed in this and other books that it's her tastes that are seen as aberrant and uncool, at least by authors who rely on these cliches, one assumes, in an effort to establish some kind of kiddie credibility.
I'm really tired of this sort of thing -- I read a lot to our children in part because I don't want their minds to be colonized by commercial television and its values. It's disappointing to find some of those same values then recycled in children's books, especially one of such generally high quality as this.
Book Review: Great illustrations and totally entertaining story
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this for my 3 1/2 year old grandson and he loved it. Whenever Grammy comes to visit I try to have scoured Amazon.com for what look like the best children's books and as he had loved David Shannon's books I bought this one as I knew the illustrations would be colorful. It is a fun story but the best part, it lends itself so well to playing imaginatively. Immediately after reading it, we went outside and I played cartographer helping my grandson draw our own treasure map with instructions how to get to the tree in his backyard where we buried a seashell. He was so excited to show his Mommy and his baby brother how well the map worked and where our treasure was buried. Great little story and we read it several times over the next few days...always noticing something else in the pictures we hadn't seen before and then making up our own stories about what we saw. So I bought "Pirates Don't Change Diapers" also and pirate tattoos to continue the saga. Lots of scope for the imagination here!