Lilly and the Pirates

by Phyllis Root, Rob Shepperson (Illustrator)

Overview

Lilly is a ten-year-old worrywart. To keep her concerns at bay, she diligently and fervently lists them in a worry book. Her globe-trotting scientist-parents don't worry about anything. When they learn of a rare sighting of the frangipani fruit fly, they set sail for the fabled Shipwreck Islands. Since water is her greatest fear, Lilly stays behind with her eccentric, librarian great-uncle. Then news comes that the scientists are shipwrecked, and Lilly must overcome her fear of the sea, find the hidden island, and outsmart a bunch of treasure-hungry pirates to save her parents. Rob Shepperson's detailed, action-packed pencil illustrations are as wonderfully good-humored as the story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620910276
Publisher:	Highlights
Publication date:	09/01/2013
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Phyllis Root has written many award-winning books for children, including Ten Sleepy Sheep, Oliver Finds His Way, One Duck Stuck, What Baby Wants, Rattletrap Car, and Big Momma Makes the World, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. She currently teaches in the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Hamline University. She lives in Minneapolis, MN.

Rob Shepperson has illustrated many children's books including Bugs by David L. Harrison and The Big House by Carolyn Coman. His droll editorial drawings appear regularly in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

Editorial Reviews

* "[An] enjoyably preposterous, emotionally resonant, library-revering adventure." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Many children will relate to this rather cozy adventure story and its lovably flawed heroine." —Booklist

"Full of adventure and questions of 'What next?'" —Library Media Connection

From the Publisher

Lilly, age ten, worries about everything. She frets when she is separated from her scientist parents whose exploration of the Shipwreck Islands requires sea travel, which frightens Lilly whom a rogue wave almost drowned as a toddler. Lilly stays with her Great-Uncle Ernest, a librarian, in Mundelaine where he constantly consults A Guide to a Visit from Your Great-Niece. A mystery fan, Lilly eagerly visits the Mundelaine library only to learn her fastidious uncle, who likes facts, prefers stocking the shelves with nonfiction. Lilly checks out The Prudent Mariner's Guide to the Shipwreck Islands which contains a map. Apprehensive when a strange salesman asks odd questions, Lilly bravely knocks on her new neighbor's door because that is what her fictional heroine Millicent Murray would do. She meets eccentric Mrs. Teagarden who identifies the salesman as the pirate Blackheart who is seeking William Barnacle's treasure, stating that Barnacle disappeared in the Shipwreck Islands. She agrees to answer Lilly's questions if Lilly takes the pirate's oath. A seagull delivers a message stating Lilly's parents have been shipwrecked. Aboard a stolen boat, Lilly steadies her nerves as Mrs. Teagarden teaches her nautical procedures while sailing to rescue her parents. Readers will vicariously roll with the waves when a storm and pursuing pirates force Lilly to be bold and discover her strengths, navigating toward a thrilling conclusion. Each chapter is introduced by a small illustration and includes a page devoted to artwork representing plot and character developments and offering clues to mysteries Lilly encounters. This adventure will appeal to bibliophiles of all ages. Read with Wendy Orr's Nim's Island (1999) and Nim at Sea (2007). Reviewer: Elizabeth D. Schafer

Children's Literature - Elizabeth D. Schafer

Ten-year-old Lilly is perfectly content to be hauled around the world by her scientist parents in pursuit of boomerang beetles and lily pad leeches. So when they decide to leave her behind with her gray-as-dust great-uncle Ernest (a librarian!) while they head for the Shipwreck Islands to study the frangipangi fruit fly, she's crushed. One day chez Uncle Ernest, a flock of homing seagulls delivers an ominous note from her parents: "Have hit reef, sinkin." The next thing Lilly knows, she's on a sailboat on her way to rescue them, lost at sea with the frumpy-fierce pirate Mrs. Teagarden: "Aye, well, that's a problem, trusting pirates. Even if ye're a pirate yerself," she says. Lilly, a notorious worrywart, especially about the treacherous sea, finds her fears blasted away by the ocean spray when she bravely takes the tiller of Last Chance. This transformation from skittish bookworm to swashbuckling pirate girl is the real buried treasure in this enjoyably preposterous, emotionally resonant, library-revering adventure. Shepperson's cartoonish pencil illustrations are as wonderfully detailed, action-packed and good-humored as the story. (Adventure. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews