PIRATE NELL'S TALES TO TELL

A literary cur teaches her fellow buccaneers that there be treasure in them thar books!

Book-smart pup Nell joins an all-dog pirate crew with big dreams. “For great adventures filled her head / from every tale she’d ever read.” She even has her trusty Pirate’s Almanac to help this young dog learn some new tricks. But Capt. Gnash, an amputee bulldog with a bone for a prosthesis instead of a peg leg, has no respect for bookishness and belittles the peppy pup. Undeterred, Nell finds a treasure map only to have it snatched by Gnash. Ignoring Nell’s good advice, he soon finds himself in need of her rescue, and when the treasure is at last discovered, is it any wonder that it’s 20 treasure chests full of books? Gnash sees the error of his ways, and Nell not only teaches the crew to read, but converts the boat into a floating library. The upbeat rhyming text keeps the plot moving at a fair clip and sails past the occasional awkward turn of phrase (is it possible to “snap…with a sneer”?). Cheery art has a friendly, cartoony look, and its buoyant tenor will make even the scurviest wag yearn for a tropical isle of their own. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-22.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 27.7% of actual size.)

A pox on the haters! Secure the mainsail and set a course for a howling good adventure.