Pirate Stew

by Neil Gaiman, Chris Riddell

Overview

Meet LONG JOHN McRON, SHIP'S COOK . . . and the most unusual babysitter you've ever seen.

Long John has a whole crew of wild pirates in tow, and—for one boy and his sister—he's about to transform a perfectly ordinary evening into a riotous adventure beneath a pirate moon. It's time to make some PIRATE STEW.

Marvelously silly and gloriously entertaining, this tale of pirates, flying ships, doughnut feasts and some rather magical stew is perfect for all pirates, both young and old.

With a deliciously rhyming text from master storyteller Neil Gaiman and spellbinding illustrations by the supremely talented Chris Riddell, this is the picture book of the year! 

Pirate Stew! Pirate Stew!
Pirate Stew for me and you!
Pirate Stew, Pirate Stew
Eat it and you won’t be blue
You can be a pirate too!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062934581
Publisher:	Quill Tree Books
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	258,513
File size:	57 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Neil Gaiman is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of books for children and adults whose award-winning titles include Norse Mythology, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Coraline, and The Sandman graphic novels. Neil Gaiman is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR and Professor in the Arts at Bard College.

Chris Riddell is an acclaimed British artist who lives in Brighton, England. He has written and illustrated many books of his own, including Ottoline and the Yellow Cat and Ottoline Goes to School, and has illustrated, for Bloomsbury UK, The Graveyard Book; Coraline; and Fortunately, the Milk; as well as The Sleeper and the Spindle.

Hometown:

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Date of Birth:

November 10, 1960

Place of Birth:

Portchester, England

Education:

Attended Ardingly College Junior School, 1970-74, and Whitgift School, 1974-77

Website:

http://www.neilgaiman.com

Editorial Reviews

11/02/2020

Babysitting two skeptical siblings, Long John McRon, Ship’s Cook, and his pirate crew concoct a buccaneer-pleasing repast: “Pirate Stew, Pirate Stew,/ eat it and you won’t be blue./ You can be a pirate too!” What could possibly go awry? With consummately inventive Newbery Medalist Gaiman at the helm, nothing short of boatloads. In rollicking verse, the rowdy chefs, elaborately costumed and coiffed in Riddell’s freewheeling illustrations, initially toss relatively tame ingredients into their golden cooking pot—“Start with onions, start with carrots./ Add the seeds that feeds the parrots./ Pulverized with heavy pestles, leeks are good (except in vessels)”—but the recipe becomes comically slapdash with the addition of gold doubloons, cannonballs, “a slice of plank for walking,/ and some extra Arrs for talking.” The whimsy takes further flight when Long John McRon pilots a post-supper journey to a doughnut shop after the children’s house morphs into an airborne pirate ship, and the longtime collaborators top off this delightful yarn with a wry parental twist. Ages 4–8. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"This is a lively pirate outing for any fan of nautical or just plain silly humor."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Highly enjoyable, with Gaiman’s silly, singsong verses the perfect ingredient for a raucous read-aloud. Riddell’s predictably fabulous illustrations are ablaze with color and detail."

Booklist

"This is a lively pirate outing for any fan of nautical or just plain silly humor."

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"Highly enjoyable, with Gaiman’s silly, singsong verses the perfect ingredient for a raucous read-aloud. Riddell’s predictably fabulous illustrations are ablaze with color and detail."

Booklist

★ 2020-09-29
This book could serve as a recruiting drive for pirates, mostly because of the hair.

Pirate hair, in Riddell’s illustrations, is glorious. It’s powder blue, or it’s peaked like twin mountains or forms crests like waves in the ocean. More important, the pirates have joyous, irresistible smiles. But the two children who find themselves babysat by these benign buccaneers are still suspicious. The pirates in this picture book don’t follow the rules of ordinary seagoers. When they make their titular stew, the ingredients include “a Jolly Roger” and “half a sack of gold doubloons.” If you eat it, they say, “You’ll become a pirate too!” The artwork also blithely veers from the text. Gaiman says that the chief pirate has gray hair, but in Riddell’s delicately lined cartoons his beard is a bright, cheerful blue, proving that no one should ever trust pirates or artists or children’s-book authors. But it’s hard to be afraid of buccaneers who shout things like “Toodle-pip!” The crew is diverse enough—in wardrobe and in racial presentation—that almost any reader can feel welcome. The children have brown skin and come from an interracial family, with a White mother and a Black father. The rhythm of the rhyming text is instantly catchy, though it’s so dense that a word and its rhyme occasionally become separated when the layout places them on different pages. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-15-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Readers may wish that Talk Like a Pirate Day lasted all year long. (Picture book. 4-9)

Kirkus Reviews

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