Edward and the Pirates

Book: Edward and the Pirates
Author/Illustrator: David McPhail


Summary of the book:

After a young boy name Edward learns how to read he can’t seem to stop reading. During breakfast he reads the cereal box, seed catalogs in the winter, the inscriptions on monuments, and many books. Whenever he would read the books the characters would come alive and he would be right in the stories themselves. When he read about the racing dogs in the North Pole he was right there helping the dogs go along. He would help Robin Hood when he would become surrounded by enemies. He helped Joan of Arc and even saved her from a warrior with a battle axe. Edward even swore he saw a tyrannosaurus outside his window when reading about dinosaurs.

One day, at the library, Edward found a book about Pirates named Lost Pirate Treasure, and decided to take it home with him as the library closed. When reading the pirate book he put himself right in the middle of the story by imagining that he was controlling the pirate ship. That night he noticed that his bed was surrounded by pirates and they wanted his book to find some treasure. Edward explained to them that he couldn’t because it was the library’s book and he needed to return it when he was done.

The pirates didn’t appreciate this at all and did everything from begging him, bribing him, and even threatening to make Edward walk the plank. Edward didn’t give them the book though and he stood his ground. All of a sudden Edward’s mother, who had an odd resemblance to Joan of Arc, and his father, who looked a lot like Robin Hood, burst into the room fending the pirates off. All of this made Edward feel sorry for the pirates and he ended up giving them the book. Because they didn’t know how to read Edward ended up reading the book to them.



Critique:

First off, I would like to comment that this book would be great for a read aloud. It has wonderful pictures which take up most of the page, which allow students to have a visual to go along with the adventurous story. Not only is it a great book for you as a parent or teacher to read to the children or child, but would also be a great book to assign a student to read to another group of students as its language is very student friendly.

The story towards the end can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. The first thing that came to mind was that he ended up falling asleep while reading the book and even though it doesn’t say anything about it perhaps the ending was simply a dream that he was having of what he had read. This would explain why his parents appeared as some of the characters that he had read about before. The other way that it could have been interpreted was that he really was just imagining all of it and when he was getting a little into his book his parents came in to see what he was up to. Personally, even though the book doesn’t state what happened, I would think of it as a dream.

This book really does teach how books can really engage one’s imagination. It teaches that all it really takes is something to read and a great imagination and you can be anywhere in the world doing whatever you want. It gives reading a very fun and magical feeling and it’s important to give reading that impression to younger/beginner readers.