ahoy, mateys!

Charlie is all about pirates these days. We have swords and headscarves; we dress up and pretend his bed is a ship and we’re sailing to Treasure Island. We have three hundred million tiny Playmobil pirate figures, plus a ship and a jail. Every figure has a pistol. A TEENY WEENY pistol. That has to be picked up at the end of every day.

Fortunately, Charlie also likes pirate books, and today we bought The Night Pirates, written by Peter Harris and illustrated by Deborah Allwright. This is a beautiful book about a little boy named Tom:

Tom was a nice little boy.
Tom was a brave little boy.
Tom was a little boy about to have an adventure.

Tom is awakened one night by the sound of pirates stealing the front of his house, to disguise their ship. But these aren’t any pirates; they are “Rough, tough little girl pirates, With their own ship.” Tom joins the girl pirates on their voyage and helps them to steal the grown-up pirate Captain Patch’s treasure. Then the girl pirates return Tom and his house front and disappear, “Stealthy as shadows, quiet as mice.”

The story, by Peter Harris, is beautiful; the language is poetic and peaceful. I love that the pirates are girls, and that they are rough and tough. The text appears in various sizes, to emphasize what should be read out loudly and what should be whispered.

The accompanying illustrations are also lovely. The girl pirate captain has wild, curly brown hair and a big purple pirate hat. The colors are primarily deep blues and purples, which gives it a nice bedtime story look. Charlie likes the pages that show the grown-up pirates sleeping; he likes to point out how many of them are “baretoes.” He also likes the one page in the book that is printed the long way–rather than reading from left to right, the book has to be turned and read from top to bottom.

This is a beautiful book, and one that is a pleasure to read again and again and again. And again. And then once more.