The Rhyming Pirate in Glenn Jones’s new picture book is dressed, like a swashbuckling pirate, in a hat with skull and crossbones. But this loveable rogue has a literary bent. Instead of engaging in brutal battles he sails the world, accompanied by his cheeky pirate bird, to find rollicking rhymes for everything he sees.
The Rhyming Pirate assures us that his rhyming reputation is legend far and wide, and that his mind is sharper than the sword that’s by his side. On a double page spread we see him swinging contentedly in his hammock with a notice ‘Genius At Work’ pinned close by.
His loot rhymes with his boot, the dip with his chip, and there is a fly on his pie. But something has him flummoxed. Try as he might, he cannot find a word to rhyme with carrot. It is making him go bananas!
I bet some children will beat him to the answer. It’s his parrot of course! Actually it’s a Kea, a New Zealand mountain parrot. And he doesn’t mind it chewing on his ear as this word rhymes with that.
Glenn Jones, an Auckland-based designer, illustrator, and artist with an international reputation, has created the delightful brightly coloured comical illustrations. He has three young children of his own and wrote this book to keep them amused.
Hidden throughout the story are twenty kiwiana icons including chocolate fish, hokey pokey ice cream, jet planes and jandals. Children can go off on their own treasure hunt to locate them all which would keep them happily occupied for quite some time.
Preschoolers will enjoy this funny story. It would make a soothing bedtime read. And I think they would love it if Glenn Jones wrote more stories about the Rhyming Pirate, the only pirate who is uniquely ours in his red band kiwi gumboots.
Reviewer: Lyn Potter
Published by Little Love