Captain Jack and the Pirates

PreS-K—The gifted Bently and Oxenbury team up again to take their characters from King Jack and the Dragon (Dial, 2011) on a pirate adventure. Jack, Zach, and Casper (three very little children, one with a pacifier) and their teddy bear play on an idyllic beach, where their sand-castling becomes an imaginary adventure on the high seas. A busy day includes a terrifying storm, a shipwreck, and a run-in with pirates and ends with a warm bath and some ice cream. There are other pirate stories that highlight imaginative play, and Bently covers no new ground here, but his treatment features expertly phrased rhyming couplets that take readers step-by-step into the characters' creative process and are paired perfectly with Oxenbury's romantic washed watercolors and pencil sketches. Perfect for a lap-sit, where a child has plenty of time to search for details, identify with the characters, and fall into the rhythm of the story, but useful, too, in a small group, where readers can predict the end to each rhyming verse.