Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Castaway Pirates: A pop-up tale of bad luck, sharp teeth, and stinky toes
Illustrator: Wilson Swain
Novelty Book
For ages 5 to 7
Chronicle Books, 2008 ISBN: 978-0811859233
One day Captain Runny Nose sails into a terrible storm. His pirate treasure is washed overboard and when his ship, The Stinky Toes, begins to sink, he and his crew take to the dinghy. Unfortunately for the pirates, the dinghy is not in the best of shape. In fact it has a hole in it and they soon see that water is coming in through the floor boards. Then, to add insult to injury, a shark starts to circle the little boat.
Desperately the pirates decide to try to plug the hole with something. First they try the captain's shoe but ""it wouldn't do."" Then they try to plug the leak with the captain's coat, but that doesn't do the trick either. What will the pirates try next?
With a rollicking rhyming text and wonderful illustrations with pop-ups on all but one double page spread, this is a title that young pirate fans will find hard to resist. Cleverly crafted pop-ups perfectly compliment the funny text, and readers will love the unexpected ending.
