Pirate Stew. Neil Gaiman. Chris Riddell. 2020 [December] 48 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Pirate stew! Pirate stew! Pirate stew for me and you!
Premise/plot: When the parents go out, they hire PIRATES to babysit their two children. The entire picture book is one long (illustrated) poem. Much of the action takes place as these pirates are preparing a meal for the two kids. A stew, of course, guaranteed to turn any who eat of it into a pirate. The kids say NO THANK YOU. But will the parents?
My thoughts: The illustrations were fun and amusing. The LACK of rhythm in a rhyming poem not so much. Granted, I take rhyming poems seriously. I expect if you go to the effort to make something rhyme that it will have a NATURAL and AUTHENTIC and GENUINE rhythm to it. Yes, it technically rhymed but it sounded neither natural to human speech OR rhythmic. You can suspend your disbelief a bit if the rhythm is right.
I do think Gaiman is well enough known as an author that he could have anything published. (And I do enjoy *some* of his work. I do. It's just not everyone can right a *good* picture book.
I do think that the ridiculous, silly, over-the-top ingredients might make kids laugh.
© 2021 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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