So I went to my local library on crutches to get some good, light reading… can you tell? I came home with five books. Back at work on Monday, I got four more books in that I’d put on hold earlier. Then I had to go to yet a third library to get the book to read for book club on Thursday. This is me peeping out from my book fort…
Jack Jones and the Pirate Curse by Judith Rossell Jack Jones is an ordinary elementary school student. One day, out of the blue, a parrot named Poll flies up and starts telling Jack the craziest tales. He says that Jack is descended from Blackstrap Morgan the pirate. Now that his Uncle Mungo is dead, Jack is his closest living male relative – and that means that he’s next in line for the Pirate Curse. Very soon, random people around him start turning into the pirates that Blackstrap Morgan betrayed ten generations earlier and chasing him around. Being a knife-throwing target isn’t so fun, but seeing his previously strict and proper teacher start using pirate words and dancing jigs is. Poll wants him to fight, but Jack intends to use his brains to break the curse for good. This is a great next step up from the very short early chapter books for kids, full of jokes and fast action. For adults, the action is still amusing, and you’ll be able to recognize both historical and film pirates in those chasing Jack.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Castle Corona by Sharon Creech Here is a beautifully illuminated story with similarly formal and poetic language. In a castle high on a hill live a king and queen with their three children, none of them terribly likeable or happy with where they are. In the village below live two orphan children, trying to remember the family they once had and wishing that they lived in the castle. One day the shout of “Thief” goes through the village. Everyone, in the castle and village, tries to find out what has been stolen, who the thief is and what they should do about it. The king consults his hermit; the queen decides she wants a hermit of her own. The two princes want to do different things, both from each other and from what they have been doing; the princess wonders what use it is to be beautiful. And the two children wonder what to do with a pouch they have found. Short chapters that alternate between characters create a sense of urgency, but this book is really more about the characters and the questions about life than the fairly obvious plot. This dreamy tale will be a favorite put in the hands of the right child at the right time.
