SIR FRANCIS DRAKE: His Daring Deeds

The creator of the briskly rhymed adventures of Sir Cedric reports in a similarly humorous and irreverent vein on a historical figure--the first Englishman to complete the circumnavigation of the world and later, just 400 years ago, vice-admiral in the British victory against the Spanish Armada. The not-always-heroic life (Drake was pugnacious and incorrigibly piratical) is here reduced to a boyish adventure in Gerrard's sprightly verse, full of words like ""flabbergasted"" and ""discombobulated""; by picturing Drake and his crews as large-headed, round-bodied, spindly-legged figures (rather like Tenniel's Tweedledum and Tweedledee), sometimes caught with (or without) their modern striped shorts, the author further trivializes the bold but unscrupulous adventurer. This lighthearted spoof perpetuates the most remembered events in Sir Francis' life with characteristic British whimsy; it is attractively illustrated with stylized seascapes and considerable attention to such details as costumes, ships, and architecture--as well as those funny little men.