FICTION

Ned the Knitting Pirate

by Diana MURRAY
illus. by Leslie Lammle. 40p. Roaring Brook. Aug. 2016. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781596438903.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 2—The scurvy pirates aboard the Rusty Heap are a scruffy and scrappy and happy crew. "We're tougher than gristle and barnacle grit./We heave, and we ho, and we swab, and we…knit!!!" Or at least Ned does, much to the captain's disgust. Readers join a celebration when Ned's enormous hand-knitted blanket saves the day by sending a sail-eating sea monster back to the deep for a 100-year-long nap. Murray's couplets flow with unique images like a "skull-trim appliqué" and a "briny ocean beast." Lammle's charming, rounded cartoon characters include a watchful mermaid and a monkey who appears on nearly every page. The soft palette and friendly crew should please even the youngest pirate fans. Makers will want to take Ned's lead and teach their mates a stitch or two.
VERDICT A great read-aloud for pirate-themed storytimes, and, by tale's end, listeners will join in on the refrain.
Reviewed by Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA
Young Ned likes to knit, which doesn't make him popular among his gruff pirate shipmates. But when a ferocious ocean beast attacks the Rusty Heap, the predictable happens: Ned's hobby saves the day, and everyone learns a lesson about acceptance. The tone is kept light by bouncy rhymes with scrappy pirate speak and the illustrations' soft, seafoamy colors and smiley, rounded swashbucklers.
 , Jul 01, 2016

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