I LOVE MY PIRATE PAPA

Picture-book pirates are in plentiful supply, but it’s still likely that plenty of landlubbers will enjoy listening to this loving description of a buccaneer dad. The narrator looks a bit like David Shannon’s David, with beady black eyes, a round belly and angular limbs. In rollicking rhyme, he enumerates the joys of living aboard ship. His father, the pirate captain, helps him to get dressed, teaches him to read (from a treasure map, naturally), allows him to help recover the buried treasure and tucks him tenderly into bed at night. Stone’s dark-toned illustrations, created in acrylic and mixed-media, feature exaggerated details to humorous effect (the father’s shoulder-wide moustache is a particular favorite). A small mouse appears in several pictures, giving young listeners another reason to scan them carefully. Whether listeners will choose to spend more than one day in the company of this particular crew or quickly move on to a different adventure is open to argument. In the short run, however, this should definitely please book-thirsty young treasure seekers. (Picture book. 3-6)