Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates
Illustrator: Patrick O'Brian
Picture Book Series
For ages 5 to 8
Walker and Company, 2007 ISBN: 978-0802795717
One day, out of the blue the pirate ship Blackrot arrives in the skies above the planet Jurassica and begins firing its guns. It lands and as the citizens of the planet flee in panic the pirates attack and pillage the Imperial Palace, stealing the Jewels of Jurassica. Furious at what has happened, the President of Jurassica decides to call for Captain Raptor’s help.
Quickly Captain Raptor and his crew of three brave dinosaurs prepare their ship Megatooth. Then they blast off into space and follow in the Blackrot’s trail. They catch up with the Blackrot near a rocky moon and thinking that the enemy ship is damaged they get too close. Alas, it is a trap and the Blackrot attacks them with tons of hot lead. The Megatooth, badly damaged, is forced to crash land on the moon. Luckily a former pirate, now marooned on the moon, turns out to be a very good at fixing damaged plutonic servoscopes and soon Captain Raptor is airborne once more, with the marooned pirate, Scalawag, now on board.
Scalawag tells Captain Raptor that he is sure that the pirates have gone back to Jurassica to get the rest of the treasure. So the Megatooth heads back to Jurassica, taking a short cut and running into a very unpleasant spot of trouble on the way.
When they get back to the planet, the Blackrot soon arrives and the battle is on. But it turns out that Scalawag has a big trick up his sleeve. Could this mean the end of Captain Raptor and his gallant crew?
This second Captain Raptor book is sure to delight dinosaur and comic book fans alike. With its wonderful comic book style artwork and its gripping adventure filled storyline, this is a picture book which cannot fail to please.
