David McPhail--award-winning author and illustrator of more than 40 books, including Santa's Book of Names--has created another delightful book about Edward, a voracious reader of anything he can get his hands on, even seed catalogs in a pinch. One night, while reading a book about pirates, Edward finds himself surrounded by the salty sailors who think his book might tell them where their treasure is buried. They beg, threaten, and bribe him to no avail, but when Edward's father scares the pirates with a shower of arrows, Edward feels sorry for them and relinquishes the book. As it turns out, the pirates can't read, so Edward reads the book aloud to them. Kids will love the big, dramatic paintings (moody acrylics on canvas) and the rollicking story of how, with a little imagination, a book can come to life. (Ages 4 to 8)
PreSchool-Grade 3. Edward is an endearing, studious-looking little boy who reads everything he can get his hands on?"Cereal boxes at the breakfast table...seed catalogs that arrived on the coldest day of winter, the inscription on the monument in the town square, and books?all kinds of books." Edward becomes so involved that whatever he reads seems to be real. One day at the local library he finds a volume entitled Lost Pirate Treasure and takes it home; that night pirates invade his bedroom, demanding that he hand over the book. In the ruckus that ensues, the child bravely refuses (it's checked out on HIS card, after all), but generously ends up reading it aloud to the pirates, who never learned how themselves. McPhail's tale colorfully shows the magical worlds a good book can create. The acrylic on canvas illustrations have a fantastical appearance, especially when Edward leaps into action with Admiral Peary, Robin Hood, and Joan of Arc. Edward and the Pirates will make a great read-aloud as it encourages children to read and discover the fun and adventure in books.?Christina Linz, Macon Technical Institute Library, GA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ages 4^-8. In this sequel to Santa's Book of Names (1993), Edward has become a voracious reader. Often the adventures portrayed on the printed page become very real to him, as they do when he begins a story about some lost pirate treasure. The pirates kidnap Edward, and he must count on the heroes from earlier stories (Mother dressed as Joan of Arc and Father as Robin Hood) to rescue him from their clutches. As it turns out, the pirates only want to be read to, and Edward happily obliges. McPhail's rich acrylic paintings exude a dark and mysterious aura and feature many sinister-looking characters from Edward's books lurking around every corner. A welcome promotion for the power of reading, this will make a great choice for Book Week story hours and should be popular with adventure fans everywhere. Kay Weisman
From Kirkus Reviews
Edward, who learned to read under emergency circumstances in Santa's Book of Names (1993), reads everything now: cereal boxes, mail-order catalogs, and every book he can get his hands on, especially adventure stories. An old book about undiscovered pirate treasure that he finds in a dusty recess of his public library attracts a band of shadowy buccaneers; they materialize in Edward's bedroom one night and demand the book, believing it will guide them to their lost hoard. Edward, good library patron that he is, refuses to hand it over: ``It's checked out on my library card- -you'll have to wait till I return it.'' The pirates bluster and threaten, Edward's parents ride in for the rescue as Joan of Arc and Robin Hood, but all is resolved peacefully when Edward discovers that the pirates can't read and offers to read to them. This is a wonderful adventure on the high seas of a child's imagination, with an accomplished pen-and-ink artist showing himself equally proficient in chiaroscuro in deep-toned, textured acrylics. Edward and his large, faithful teddy are irresistible and are scheduled to return, if the book's last sentence is any indication: ``Some pirate treasure has never been found. . . .'' (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
David McPhail's newest book is
Edward and the Pirates. Edward is presented, in consistently charming pictures, as a small intellectual: sober, bespectacled, calm, a constant reader who puts himself into the action of every tale he comes across. And so, when he is devouring at bedtime a book called
Lost Pirate Treasure, we are prepared for the pirates who explode into his room, demanding the book ... finally he does give the book to the pirates, only to find that they can't read. So the story closes with his starting to read it aloud to them....
The jacket blurb tells us primly that [this book] "celebrates the power of reading." No. Thank goodness, that's not what it does. What it does is celebrate the fun of reading, which is quite different and a good deal more palatable. -- The New York Times Book Review, Natalie Babbitt
About the Author
David McPhail has been a passionate artist since the age of two. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and began illustrating books for children in 1972. Since then he has created dozens of beloved books, including the celebrated Mole Music, which was a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year, the bestselling If You Were My Bunny, Edward and the Pirates, Lost! and Drawing Lessons from a Bear. He lives in New Hampshire.
