"Knock Knock Pirate" by Caryl Hart and Nick East (Hodder Children's Books)

I think finally (hooray! Thank goodness!) there's been a distinct slowdown in the number of pirate books winging their way to us...
Though "Knock Knock Pirate" by Caryl Hart and Nick East is a notable and welcome exception, and it's now out in paperback.

Despite us being fairly 'down' on books involving buccaneers, sea swabs, scurvy coves and pirates we do love a nicely crafted book.

For starters, we look for rhyming books to trip off the tongue. They need to flow, they need to be beautifully easy to read aloud - and of course they need to be funny and have a dash of originality too.

"Knock Knock Pirate" ticks all those boxes, we're very happy to say.

When it comes to illustrations we look for pirates that aren't just your usual band of peg-legged eye-patch wearing tricorn-hatted bearded ocean crawlers. Nope we love a dash of originality there too, and Nick East has done a wonderful job of cooking up a great set of pirates.

A pirate captain, a lady, with purple hair? That's a bit more like it!

So of the story itself? It's a bit like a piratical "Cat in the Hat" only knocking at the door of a hapless young girl is a bunch of scurvy sea dogs. What's more, the chaotic female captain (YAY! About blimmin time the ladies had a turn at being Pirate Captains!) has brought along a crew - and mayhem will definitely ensue. Will things calm down and get back to normal before Dad gets home?

Pirate Grannies! Pirate Grandads! Count them all!

It's fun and knockabout stuff, part counting book, part entertaining story but full of sea-shanties, silliness and obscenely huge beards (and that's just the pirate grannies!)

Ahoy! Ahoy! We spy boooooo-tay!

"Knock Knock Pirate" is the deliciously crazy follow up to "Knock Knock Dinosaur" by Caryl Hart and Nick East, published by Hodder Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).