Review by Booklist Review
As far as picture books about manners go, Judy Sierra and Tim Bowers' prim Suppose You Meet a Dinosaur (2012) is all very nice, but for a like set of behavioral correctives that will catch the attention of more boisterous young audiences, Catrow's wild pirate rumpuses here do rousing service. Following a vicious melee, for instance, one scruffy buccaneer gallantly hands another a lost tooth: Pirates are unruly / and pirates love to fight, / but pirates still say please' and thanks' / 'cause pirates are polite. A round dozen suggestions ranging from Use your inside voice to Wait in line and Eat with your mouth shut (all summarized in a Pirate Manners list at the end) are similarly explicated in ragged verse and acted out among a crew of comically scurvy swabs. The answer to the titular question here is a rousing yes; when it comes to good manners, it seems, everyone should be a pirate.--Peters, John Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In an uneven send-up of pirates' manners, Catrow's (Fun in the Sun) boisterous mixed-media illustrations spotlight a bumbling pirate crew demonstrating respectful and unacceptable behavior alike, though they tend to blur together. At times, the action in the images takes some work to decode, or doesn't quite match up with the verse; in one scene, the pirate captain sobs while building a model pirate ship (his parrot has apparently stolen his miniature flag) as three mateys look on ("pirates never interrupt/ when another pirate's talking"). Demas and Roehrig, the mother-daughter team behind the recent Does a Fiddler Crab Fiddle?, establish a playful, singsong rhythm as they jump between bad behavior and good, but several rhymes require linguistic somersaults to come together ("While pirates are in battle,/ to push ahead is fine./ But when it's time to board the boat,/ pirates wait in line"). Even so, Catrow's caricatures will keep many readers giggling as these scallywags try-more or less-to mind their manners. Ages 3-5. Author's agent: Mitchell Waters, Curtis Brown. Illustrator's agent: Brian Keliher, Keliher Literary Management. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Mutinous manners and piratical politeness are the name of the game in this swashbuckling story. It might surprise readers to hear that pirates are the positive pinnacle of politeness, but its true! Twelve mannerly qualities are listed, with these mostly white pirates making the grade. As the book says from the start, Pirates are unruly and pirates love to fight, / but pirates still say please and thanks cause pirates are polite. And heres the captain merrily handing over a crewmates molar after a scuffle. Other guidelines are checked off the list as well, including chewing with ones mouth shut (particularly if its someone elses food), always saying thank you (even when stealing booty), and using ones inside voice (in the hold). Catrow lends his considerable talents to the tale, yet the result is strangely disjointed, leaving readers unsure if the book is serious or sarcastic. For example, readers are told not to barge into private situations, so the pirates leave the captain alone during his bubble bath, which seems literal enough. Yet earlier in the book, the verse on sharing is depicted with a lone pirate marooned with only a single coin from the latest haulthats sharing? Mind you, not all young pirate lovers will note these discrepancies. If its grotesque pirate misadventures they seek, this book delivers in spades. As a manners book, hide your doubloons. But as a pirate book, its yo-ho-ho and away you go! (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
