Pirate Baby by Mary Hoffman & Ros Asquith reviewed by Chitra Soundar

My five-year old nephew is not into pirates. He thinks it’s strange that a grown-up like me likes them. I love pirates and their adventures, although the last time I was on high seas, I spent the whole day in front of a bucket.

Being a big fan of Amazing Grace, I delved into Mary Hoffman’s Pirate Baby (published by Otter Barry Books) with relish. The illustrations by Ros Asquith are full of fun and naughtiness – keep an eye on the cat and the parrot, lest they should run away with a story of their own.

The pirates in this book are faced with an impossible situation – surely they went in search of treasures and finding a screaming baby wasn’t really a sign of good luck? The pirates from the school of hard-knocks try and keep the baby fed and looked after as best as they could.

But then if you have a baby you need milk and where do you get milk on a ship? The pirates are not known for drinking milk. But they come up with a clever plan. The pirates get resourceful – to feed the baby, to make clothes and to protect her from falling overboard. What more could a baby ask for?

Well the baby didn’t ask for a monster to attack them either. But her resourcefulness saves the pirates and earns her a place in the crew. Now she’s not just a baby or bad luck, she’s a pirate baby on a pirate ship.

This book is full of energy and fun and would have children chuckling and giggling for a long time. But it’s also subtly reversing roles among the pirates (check out the fierce lady pirates they meet) and showing there’s a place for a girl anywhere she wants to go and in anything she wants to do.

I’m hoping my nephew who’s not into pirates will love this book when I share it with him because it’s important for young children to understand that there are no set gender rules and anyone can be a pirate if they want to be. Although they do need a strong stomach to withstand the high seas. Not me then, sadly.

If you like pirate stories like me, maybe you can also check out these:

• Johnny Duddle’s The Pirate Cruncher
• Pirate Pete and his smelly feet by Lucy Rowland & Mark Chambers
• Ten Little Pirates by Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty 

And on this site, we have all reviewed a number of wonderful pirate books. Click here to see all of our pirate recommendations.

---

Chitra Soundar is an Indian-born British writer, storyteller and author of children’s books, based in London. Find out more at www.chitrasoundar.com or follow her on twitter via @csoundar.

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE

SECRETS AND DREAMS by Jean Ure. Reviewed by Adèle Geras

Anyone who reads my reviews regularly knows that I have no  shame when it comes to writing about books by my friends. My feeling is:  reviews  for most children's books are few and far between and anything I can do to draw people's attention to something they might enjoy, I try to do. And as I've said many times, it's not my fault that many of my chums are good writers. 

Jean Ure has written every kind of book in her time. In the last while, she's concentrated on a certain kind of story. To quote Jacqueline Wilson on the cover: "Fun, funky, feisty...and fantastic reads."

That is all true, but it's worth saying something more about Ure's books. The thing about them is: they're  well-written (not a given in books of this kind!) and even though they are decked in flowery, brightly coloured, girl-oriented covers they are never soppy, or silly and they never talk down. They are also almost always funny at least in the way they are written, if not always in their subject matter.

This story is about Zoe, whose family has won a large sum of money on the lottery. Each member of the family can choose to do something they really, really want and what Zoe wants is to go to boarding school. She has been influenced by Enid Blyton of course...and St Withburga's ( Cheeseburga of course!) is where she ends up.

The rest of the novel is about how she adjusts to being at school and how she negotiates the various friendship groups. Ure discusses how they change,  how they affect different  girls. She deals well with the day to day stuff of boarding school: the importance of nicknames, the status you get from having a boyfriend, the longing to be included, and accepted. I know from having a 12 year old granddaughter that her friends are a tremendously important aspect of her life, and I can even remember, across a distance of more than half a century, how painful and hideous any kind of exclusion can be when you're at boarding school...which I was, for eight years. 

Jean Ure's books are easy to read.  This one is in the first person. There's lots of dialogue and the characters are skilfully drawn and well differentiated.  They should not therefore be dismissed as frivolous. She deals with real issues, and in a light and interesting way. The books are nicely produced, and not very long. They are just the thing for the summer holidays, if you have young teenagers looking for a pleasant way to pass the time. Read this one and there are many others by Ure that you can go on to. I do like a writer who's got a long backlist! A very enjoyable book indeed.


Published by Harper Collins in pbk. £6.99
ISBN: 9780007553952

Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE