This is an excellent adaptation of the comic strip technique to an amusing and original sort of book. It could be classed as a picture story book, for the text is slight, but it has enough substance -- with the aid of the amusing and gay pictures, to have some value as a first reader. The author of Mr. Tootwhistle's Invention has a gift for story telling, adventure and humor that is too rare today. Here's a pirate story with a well-concealed moral. Good merchandise -- plus sound values.