The Jolley-Rogers - a pirate family, are moving to Dull-on-Sea, a quiet seaside town. Stopping to fix up their ship, this unusual family get the whole neighbourhood spreading rumours. Defying the grown-ups, Matilda from next door decides to become friends with the youngest pirate son. When the Jolley-Rogers leave, the town discovers they were wrong to assume the worst - the pirate clan have buried treasure in everyone's gardens (shown in a stunning double-gatefold). Matilda feels sad until she discovers her own treasure - an incredibly exciting new pen friend.
The sequel to "The Pirate Cruncher", this sees salty pirate family the Jolly-Rogers move to a modern seaside town, Dull-on-Sea. Matilda from next-door becomes friends with the youngest pirate son, and the clan bury treasure in everyone's gardens when they leave. Duddle is a concept artist for the animated film "The Pirates!", due for release in March. Ages: 3+
The Pirates Next Door tells the tale of Matilda, a little girl who lives in a gloomy seaside town, Dull-on-Sea. One day, new neighbours move in next door - a family of pirates, taking a break from the seas to fix their ship.
Matilda thinks it's fantastic to have such exciting neighbours, especially a young lad her age, Jim, who's dressed in a pirate bandanna and an eye-patch. However, her mum, dad and the other neighbours are not so impressed with these new residents, The Jolley-Rogers, and tell her they'd rather she was friends with "normal girls and boys".
The other residents accuse the pirates of terrorising the neighbourhood, being dirty and having lice, and their ship being full of rats. However, Matilda still insists on sitting next to Jonny at school as she thinks he's "cool". He tells her the pirates are used to this kind of reaction whenever they come to land - and when they finally depart, the neighbours discover just how wrong they were about the pirates after all.
That might make the book sound a bit worthy. And while it does have a message about tolerance and prejudice, it's subtly hidden in an adventurous tale, written in wonderful rhyming verse and accompanied by vividly detailed and engaging illustrations.
It's a lot longer than other picture books, so age-wise I'd say it would appeal to children of three and above, with a reading age from 6 or 7. I asked Little Miss E, age 5, and Little Man O, 3.5, what they thought of the book and while it was the humour and the pictures that really impressed them, they quickly understood the message about not judging people and always being kind.
This is a fun and adventurous book with wonderfully-detailed illustrations and fast-paced, descriptive verse that you will be happy to read time and again. We highly recommend it.
