In this well-translated humorous turnabout from the author of The Princess Knight (2004), similar themes of female strength and empowerment come through protagonist, Molly, a little girl in her own sailboat who’s kidnapped by pirates. Forced to peel potatoes, patch the sails and scrub the deck, Molly refuses to give her parents’ names and address for a ransom note and cleverly outsmarts the ruffian Captain Firebeard and his fearsome crew. She secretly carries out a plan to communicate with her family through messages tucked into several empty bottles tossed into the sea. When her plan is discovered by mate Morgan O’Meany, and she’s about to be fed to the sharks, the dreaded Barbarous Bertha, a pirate, who just happens to be Molly’s mom, comes cruising in, surprising Captain Firebeard and his petrified bunch. Tables turned, the Firebeard buccaneers are now prisoners of their own game, scrubbing the deck and polishing Bertha’s boots 14 times a week. Meyer’s bright, droll mixed-media pen-and-ink paintings of bushy bearded, scruffy, pot-bellied males countered by a voluminous slightly grotesque matriarch with her buxom throng add to the amusing comeuppance. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: June 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-439-71672-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION
Did you like this book?
Feminism for the piratically inclined.
Fitzgerald and Barrager give the old chestnut of a girl who’s turned away from a boys’ fort due to her gender alone a piratical twist. After CeCe’s initial disappointment, she vows to get advice from the only true pirate she knows: her grandfather. Game to give his granddaughter a 101 in how to be the best possible scurvy dog, he uses each of his tattoos to extol a virtue such as bravery or speed. As in Alison McGhee and Eliza Wheeler’s Tell Me a Tattoo Story (2016), body art becomes the inspiration for any number of adventures and aphorisms, ending with the most important lesson: love. Readers may note that few of these flights of fancy have much to do with pirates specifically. Nevertheless, an emboldened CeCe returns to the boys and successfully owns her piratude. The ending is more than a bit optimistic, as CeCe gains admission simply by redeclaring intentions with a smidgen more chutzpah. Would that misogyny always rolled over so easily. Happily, Fitzgerald’s tale is accompanied by the rollicking vibrancy of Barrager’s art. Reality pales (literally) in the face of the imagination, with a clever tonal shift to a brighter, more saturated palette indicating CeCe’s determination. CeCe and Grandpa both present white; the boys who initially snub her display a range of skin colors and hair textures.
While thar be precious little piracy visible in this, its feminist themes are strong. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68119-778-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
Did you like this book?
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. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2022 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
