The Gingerbread Pirates

Starred review from October 26, 2009
A boy makes a gingerbread pirate crew on Christmas Eve; his mom leaves most of the pirates for Santa, but the boy takes the captain to his room. As the boy sleeps, the captain—sporting a ruffled shirt made of icing and a toothpick peg leg—makes his way downstairs (“Where's my crew?
he wondered. And who's this Santa Claus who wants to eat them?
”). Luckily, Santa ends up being a friend who gives the pirates a ship of their own. Swashbuckling gusto and a poignant finish should make this a new favorite. Ages 4–10.

October 1, 2009
PreS-Gr 3-After Jim and his mother bake pirate gingerbread men for Santas snack, toothpick-legged Captain Cookie undertakes a daring rescue of his crew from the hungrybut understandingSanta Claus, who works a magical transformation. When Jim awakes Christmas morning, he finds under the Christmas tree not only a magnificent toy pirate ship, but also a peg-legged captain and crew onboard. An exciting story and full-page, dramatically composed paintings depicting harrowing adventures with a mouse, a cat, and the crew imprisoned in a cookie jar make this a good holiday read-aloud."Maureen Wade, Los Angeles Public Library"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2009
Preschool-G On Christmas Eve, Jim and his mother bake and decorate a batch of pirate-shaped cookies, including peg-legged Captain Cookie. That night, the intrepid captain, who heard Jims mother suggest leaving out pirates for Santa Claus to eat and hopes to save his crew from that cannibal, makes his way to the living room. When Jim awakens on Christmas morning, he finds beside the tree a wonderful model pirate ship manned by wooden pirates who curiously resemble the cookies made the night before. Large in scale and dramatic in effect, watercolor-and-gouache paintings create believable settings, sometimes seen from unusual perspectives, and sympathetically portray the characters, especially the pirates, whose icing-sugar mouths and eyes are surprisingly expressive. Children will enjoy knowing more about Christmas than the pirate captain, who bravely charges himself into a situation he doesnt understand and challenges an unexpectedly benevolent foe. Fine for reading aloud, this secular seasonal story combines pirates and Christmas in a childlike, imaginative picture book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2010
A pirate captain gingerbread man refuses to accept his crew's fate on the plate of the season's most notorious cookie eater, Santa. In the end, Santa steps in to teach the pirates about the true nature of Christmas, graciously forgoing his snack. Tavares's vivid watercolor and gouache paintings dramatize Kladstrup's lively text with vigor in this imaginative adventure story.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2009
On Christmas Eve, a pirate captain gingerbread man (with a toothpick for a peg leg) refuses to accept his crew's fate on the plate of the season's most notorious cookie eater, Santa. Captain Cookie's quest to rescue his crew from their cookie-jar imprisonment is not without peril, and humorous obstacles abound, including an encounter with a mouse that leaves him weaponless (his gingerbread cutlass is devoured before his eyes) and a pervasive confusion as to what Christmas is all about. In the end, Santa steps in to teach the pirates about the true nature of Christmas, graciously forgoing his snack in their favor and granting Captain Cookie his wish -- to become the captain of a toy pirate ship. Tavares's vivid watercolor and gouache paintings dramatize Kladstrup's lively text with vigor in this imaginative adventure story.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)