Avast! No treasure is safe from these diminutive daredevils of the deep.
Large pop-ups and multilayered tableaux gas up an already effervescent tale of pirate adventure from 2006.
Young Tom wakes (maybe) to see shadowy figures stealing the entire front from his house. He finds himself joining a crew of “rough, tough little girl pirates” scheming to disguise their ship and steal treasure from Capt. Patch and his grown-up buccaneers. Swinging from hammocks strung from pop-up palm trees, Patch’s scurvy crew turns out to be pushovers when the invaders—brandishing sabers and fiercely buckling swash beneath oversized pirate hats—leap from door and window with a “fearsome roar!” as the climactic spread opens. Tom and the girls then sail off in triumph to hoist both wall and weary boy back into place (more or less, as a final flap reveals). Printed in a range of sizes, the narrative’s type looks thrown into each scene at random, but the text is actually both easy to follow and artfully placed to enhance the melodrama of this rousing moonlit expedition.
Avast! No treasure is safe from these diminutive daredevils of the deep. (Pop-up/picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4052-5678-0
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Egmont/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Avast, me mateys! This be good clean fun on the salty seas.
Using one’s imagination is a lot easier when everybody is on board.
“What are you playing?” an amused parent asks a small child. The little one cries out resolutely, “I’M NOT PLAYING!” After all, a storm is on its way, and it’s time to fit out the ship. The adult’s gentle protestations (“Um, I kind of need to vacuum the rug”) are no match for the undeniable fact that the rug is, in fact, the ocean. Soon enough the two are raising the mainsail, swabbing the poop deck, hoisting the burgee, and more (a helpful glossary of sailing terms is included). In spite of the occasional cell phone interruption (the child, facedown on the rug, laments, “We are in the doldrums” when the adult takes a call), all is put right when the adult gets back into the spirit of things, fielding an attack against a giant squid (aka the vacuum cleaner). Rescues, distress signals, hungry sharks—it all adds up to a wonderful time. That rug is never getting vacuumed. Blackall slips with ease between fantasy and reality, and young readers will have oodles of fun watching as socks morph into seagulls and paper towel tubes become telescopes. It’s also nice to see a book where the notion of turning off your cell phone is aimed more directly at the parents than the kids. All characters are light-skinned.
Avast, me mateys! This be good clean fun on the salty seas. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593429396
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
Watching unlikely friends finally be as “happy as two someones can be” feels like being enveloped in your very own hug.
What to do when you’re a prickly animal hankering for a hug? Why, find another misfit animal also searching for an embrace!
Sweet but “tricky to hug” little Hedgehog is down in the dumps. Wandering the forest, Hedgehog begs different animals for hugs, but each rejects them. Readers will giggle at their panicked excuses—an evasive squirrel must suddenly count its three measly acorns; a magpie begins a drawn-out song—but will also be indignant on poor hedgehog’s behalf. Hedgehog has the appealingly pink-cheeked softness typical of Dunbar’s art, and the gentle watercolors are nonthreatening, though she also captures the animals’ genuine concern about being poked. A wise owl counsels the dejected hedgehog that while the prickles may frighten some, “there’s someone for everyone.” That’s when Hedgehog spots a similarly lonely tortoise, rejected due to its “very hard” shell but perfectly matched for a spiky new friend. They race toward each other until the glorious meeting, marked with swoony peach swirls and overjoyed grins. At this point, readers flip the book to hear the same gloomy tale from the tortoise’s perspective until it again culminates in that joyous hug, a book turn that’s made a pleasure with thick creamy paper and solid binding.
Watching unlikely friends finally be as “happy as two someones can be” feels like being enveloped in your very own hug. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-571-34875-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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