Pirate Stew
The show-stopping picture book from Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From the multi-award-winning Neil Gaiman comes the biggest picture book of the year: a joyfully riotous, brilliantly anarchic, deliciously rhyming adventure, with glorious piratical illustrations by Chris Riddell
'Neil Gaiman is the nearest thing children's books have to a rock star: if you enjoy fantasy, he is irresistible' The Times
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 two intrepid children – 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.
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!
Marvellously silly and gloriously entertaining, this tale of pirates, flying ships, donut 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, three-times-winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal, this is the picture book of the year! Joyful, quirky and action-packed, it makes a spectacular and magical gift.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
