 Pirates and Privateers
The History of Maritime
Piracy
Cindy Vallar, Editor
& Reviewer
P.O. Box 425,
Keller, TX 76244-0425
Books for
Young Pirates
Pirate Nell’s Tale to Tell
By Helen Docherty
Illustrated by Thomas Docherty
Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2020, ISBN 978-0-578-69642-3,
$16.99
Also available in e-book & audio formats
It’s Nell’s big day. Her
wish has finally been granted. She’s a
pirate!
She brings along her Pirate’s Almanac, a
book she’s studied forward and backward
until she knows everything about being a
pirate. She tries to share the book with
Captain Gnash, but he frowns on reading.
Nor is her grand adventure quite what she
envisioned. Her days are spent scrubbing
pots and swabbing the deck. Yet the crew
enjoys the many tales she spins at night
just before they go to sleep.
One night while on deck, Nell retrieves a
bottle floating in the water. Inside is a
treasure map, which Captain Gnash
confiscates. Even though he hasn’t a clue
as to where the buried treasure is, he
sets off to find it, encountering troubles
and perils along the way.
This captivating book demonstrates that
gold and silver don’t always make the best
treasure and, sometimes, even the newest
pirate makes important contributions both
to the ship and the quest. Complimenting
the story is the vibrant color artwork
that provides young pirates with treasures
galore to find, such as Captain Gnash’s
boneleg (a pegleg made out of a bone) or
the lurking sea serpent. One of my
favorite illustrations depicts the ship
and crew tossed about during a storm.
Another is what Nell and her mates do with
the treasure. This rhyming tale will
delight young and old alike, and is sure
to be a young pirate’s favorite tale of
adventure aboard a pirate ship.
Review Copyright ©2020
Cindy Vallar
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Background image compliments
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