Pirateria

June 4, 2012
Brown (Boy Wonders) makes an enthusiastic sales pitch for Pirateria, where “we put the ‘arg’ in ‘bargain’!” His infomercial narrative beckons scurvy shoppers to queue up for “Spinnakers, jibs, and rope in hanks;/ solid maple walking planks.... And this just in: a fresh batch of eye patches!/ Two per package to prevent mismatches.” (An eye-patch color chart offers options like “bilge water gray,” “moby white,” and “dreaded red.”) The Yo Ho Hosiery and Footwear department offers single shoes for peglegs, and another aisle features message bottles, since “pirates expect to be shipwrecked.” Grudges are to be left at sea (“Attention buckos, oafs, and toughs./ You’ll walk the plank if we spy fisticuffs”), and grumpy buccaneers roam Pirateria’s food court. Brown merges pirate lore and consumer frenzy in his upbeat, clever rhymes; he even lists a BOGO galleon special and a night class in “protecting your booty.” His dingy paintings of surly scalawags become a bit monotonous—prepare for a surplus of buckle shoes and bandanas, muddled purple grays and murky seaweed greens—but pirate fans will yearn to shop here. Ages 4–8. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

May 1, 2012
One-stop shopping for all "swashbucklers and swashbucklerettes." Offering "[s]pinnakers, jibs, and rope in hanks; / solid maple walking planks" and arrays of specialty goods from eye patches to aRRgyle socks, this "wonderful, plunderful pirate emporium" merits a stop on every budding buccaneer's itinerary. Accompanying a hearty commentary that breaks into and out of rhyme but keeps to a rolling rhythm, Brown dishes up illustrations featuring an array of scurvy (if somewhat yuppified) shoppers of both sexes in nautical wear. They are browsing the Yo Ho Hosiery and Footwear department, sitting down in the food court with flagons and nasty-looking viands or accosting the glowering sales staff ("Where be the yardarm cozies?"). From pirate togs to treasure maps to night classes in map reading, here's the place to pick up anything piratical. Prices? "[W]e put the 'arg' in 'bargain'!" is the proud claim of this K-Mart for corsairs. Avast! This combination of nonsense verse and everything pirate is a guaranteed winner. (Picture book. 6-8)

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June 1, 2012

PreS-Gr 1-"Do you need top-quality pirate gear?" Bouncy rhyming verse extols the virtues of the Pirateria. "Our glorious pirate emporium/is known the world over, /from the Spanish Main/to the cliffs of Dover." Indeed, this one-stop shop carries everything from "solid maple walking planks" to "fresh lime quinine/to ward off the scurvy" to eye patches in colors such as "plunder plum" and "cannonball black." However, Pirateria is more than just a store: it provides night classes in subjects such as chart reading, smuggling molasses, and spyglass making. Brown makes the most of the premise, finding more pirate puns and references than one would think possible. Goofy swashbucklers, rendered in acrylics in sea-faring hues, cavort across the pages.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD

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