Pirate Stew

Pirate Stew

Neil Gaiman

illustrations by Chris Riddell 2020

Neil Gaiman spins a silly yarn about a pirate babysitter who makes "Pirate Stew" for dinner.  Made of onions and carrots, cannonballs, wooden planks, mermaid tears and other ridiculous things, beware, it will turn you into a pirate if you eat it!  Soon the house is a pirate ship sailing through the sky and finding a donut shop to pillage.  The children charges are savvy and Gaiman's rhymes are fun to read aloud.

(We actually have a dish we call "Pirate Stew".  It's beef and potatoes and a little bit of everything made in the crock pot.)

 

The Angel and the Soldier Boy

Here is a neat wordless book that tells an adventure story about a soldier and angel doll.  While a little girl is sleeping, some pirates (from the bedtime book she was reading?) steal treasure from her piggy bank.  The soldier goes off to right the injustice.  But I like that in the end it's up to the little angel doll to brave the house (hiding from a cat, climbing up a house plant, fighting a wasp) to rescue the soldier and the stolen treasure.

The Angel and the Soldier Boy

Peter Collington 1987

The illustrations are minutely detailed and yet retain a sense of softness.  And it's a credit to Peter Collington's skill that he can tell such an exciting story without any words.

Pirates in the Park

I love stories about adventurous girls!  Maybe that's because I was once an adventurous girl myself, and I have two such daughters of my own.

Pirates in the Park.

Thom Roberts 1973

pictures by Harold Berson

This story, very obviously illustrated in the 70's and looking similar to Peter Spier's work, is about a girl named Jenny and her crew of stuffed animal friends. When she goes down to the pond to play, a group of boys make fun of her.  She doesn't have a fancy model ship to play with like they do but she builds a walnut boat and her imagination makes up for the rest.

Jenny becomes the brave captain of the S.S. Walnut with her toys as her sailors.  She leads them to victory against the pirate boys and rescues her dog.  It's a cute story with a fun heroine.