Anemic fare for would-be buccaneers.
Avast! There’s more to a real pirate’s life than plunder and parties.
As in Who Wants To Be A Princess? (2017, illustrated by Migy), Heos contrasts romance with reality—but not in any particularly perceptive, or even accurate, way. Addressing readers whose idea of “pirate” starts and ends with the likes of Capt. Hook or Jack Sparrow, the equally fictional Capt. Parrot (a white human with a diverse crew) does present pirate food as wormy in good times and boiled boots in bad, and gives redolent new meaning to the term “poop deck” thanks to the livestock on board. But aside from drinking punch and having food fights, he barely alludes to actual piratical behavior or history. Duncan is no better, as he shows a cartoon crew firing anachronistic breech-loading cannons and then contradicting the narrative claim that victims are thrown overboard by providing them a boat and supplies. He also depicts a carpenter “surgeon” flourishing but not using a faintly discolored saw, leaves the captured captain being bundled aboard a paddy wagon rather than hanged, and offers a final view of an apparently uninhabited pirate ship sailing along. An afterword on the Golden Age of Piracy, capped by a bibliography, at least points to piracy’s less savory side.
Anemic fare for would-be buccaneers. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9770-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Like its series mates from Giant Vehicles (2014) on, a pleaser for fans of big rigs.
Die-cut flaps offer glimpses inside eight 20th-century fliers, from Louis Bleriot’s 1909 Type XI to the space shuttle.
Biesty’s exactingly detailed painted portraits are the stars of the show—each presenting a type of passenger liner or freight hauler (most of them big and bulky) poised in flight, viewed from slightly above or below. Each also features four or so inconspicuous flaps that lift to reveal neatly drawn seats and storage spaces, internal bracing, fuel tanks, toilets, and other points of interest. Along with very brief accounts of each craft’s career, Graham adds surrounding captions that point out ailerons and cockpits, engines, exhaust ducts, and other physical features. Small human figures, most but not all light-skinned, impart a sense of scale. Where space permits, pertinent spot images of related items of interest—the Wrights’ Flyer, Harriet Quimby, a zeppelin, or other side subject—are tucked in. Only two aircraft covered, the U.S. Boeing 747 and the Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopter, are still in common use, so this album may appeal more to fans of aviation’s past than its present or future.
Like its series mates from Giant Vehicles (2014) on, a pleaser for fans of big rigs. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0281-6
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Seek elsewhere.
A Where’s Waldo?–style seek-and-find along the banks of the Nile.
Kitted out with a small magnifying glass (because “every Egyptologist needs a magnifying glass!”), this album features 16 Egyptian scenes rendered cartoon-style and teeming with small figures (all brown-skinned except for a slightly more variegated modern cast of tourists and researchers swarming over the weathered Sphinx). Long provides commentary that ranges from jejune (“Oars made boats travel faster and helped sailors to steer”; Senet “was similar to chess or checkers”) to nonsensical (“Workers rubbed the gold dust with sponges to make it shine”). A closing timeline runs from 6000 “BC” to the rise of the fictive “Islamic Empire” in 642 “AD.” Along the way viewers are invited to spot an underwhelming 10 people or items in each picture, and even the predictable encouragement at the end to go back in search of 57 more doesn’t represent much of a challenge, as these are all pre-located on a visual key.
Seek elsewhere. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-78603-097-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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