Pirates Don't Say Please!

Gr 1–2—Pirate-costume-clad Billy Nelson refuses to use his manners at lunch, so Mom sends him to his room. During his imaginary journey, he encounters an elephant and then an adult pirate who both unsuccessfully demand that he be polite. Finally, like Sendak's Max, the young pirate hears and smells signs of home, whereupon he unearths jewels and a crown to trigger a sudden transformation of costume and attitude. "Dear Queen, your prince has arrived with hands washed. Many thanks for the banquet. May the feast begin, please." Knowlton's tale is heavy in pirate vocabulary: "bounty," "poppet," "cutlass," etc., and Tans's paintings vary in finesse. The face-off between Billy and the earring-wearing elephant is spot-on, but some illustrations of the boy are less well done. This one is too uneven to be deemed a treasure.—Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA