From School Library Journal
Grade 3-4-This attempt at a tongue-in-cheek, swashbuckling adventure falls flat. A group of rather tame, tough-talking pirates, headed by a captain who is afraid of the sight of blood, finds a baby on an abandoned ship and adopts her. Predictably, they come to love Violet (or Vile, as they call her) and bring her up as one of their own ("I reckon you is now a fit an' proper pirate, mean and rotten to the core, and ready for raidin'!"). When the captain's hand is cut during a foray, he loses his taste for his work. After Violet learns to read and books open her eyes to the world around her, she convinces the men to settle down in an English fishing village where they set up a pirate circus. The dialogue is stilted, and many readers may be confused by the numerous dropped consonants. There is neither sufficient action nor character development to sustain interest, and the cartoon spot art is equally unengaging. Youngsters who enjoy wacky stories in this vein should stick with Margaret Mahy's The Great Piratical Rumbustification (Godine, 2000) or Tingleberries, Tuckertubs and Telephones (Viking, 1998).
Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York CityCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Gr. 2-4. A gaggle of pirates board a ship but instead of finding treasure, they find a small girl. Her name is Violet--Vile for short--and soon she is winning their hearts and mastering their trade, scooting up the rigging and spying hidden treasure. But the pirate captain cannot stand the sight of blood (he can hardly bring himself to say the word), and the treasure biz isn't always profitable. The pirates put into port, clean themselves up, and while having a very large cream tea (tea figures mightily in the narrative) are inspired to begin a pirate circus--with Violet's rigging skills turned to the trapeze. The squiggly line drawings, equally lighthearted, nicely break up the text, which is just the right mix of funny and silly.
GraceAnne DeCandidoCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
