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The Gingerbread Pirates

Illustrated by Matt Tavares
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Hardcover
10.13"W x 11.63"H x 0.39"D   | 18 oz | 20 per carton
On sale Sep 08, 2009 | 32 Pages | 9780763632236
Age 4-8 years

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"Swashbuckling gusto and a poignant finish should make this a new favorite." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

It’s Christmas Eve, and Jim and his mother have left pirate gingerbread men for Santa. Jim’s favorite is Captain Cookie, who carries a gingerbread cutlass and has a toothpick peg leg. Jim keeps him close by his bed. But late that night, when Jim is fast asleep, Captain Cookie step-taps away on a daring adventure to find his pirate crew and rescue them from that mysterious character he’s heard about: a cannibal named Santa Claus. This masterfully illustrated tale, sparkling with all the excitement of a pirate adventure, is a new holiday classic.
Kristin Kladstrup is the author of the middle-grade novel The Book of Story Beginnings. She lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

Matt Tavares is the author-illustrator of the New York Times best-selling picture book Dasher and its sequels, Dasher Can’t Wait for Christmas and Dasher and the Polar Bear, as well as Red and Lulu, the graphic novel Hoops, and several sports biographies, including Becoming Babe Ruth and Growing Up Pedro. He is also the illustrator of Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Jeff Gottesfeld, The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, and Over the River and Through the Wood by L. Maria Child, among many other picture books. Matt Tavares lives in Ogunquit, Maine.
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additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
Swashbuckling gusto and a poignant finish should make this a new favorite.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Large in scale and dramatic in effect, watercolor-and-gouache paintings create believable settings, sometimes seen from unusual perspectives, and sympathetically portray the characters, especially the pirates, whose icing-sugar mouths and eyes are surprisingly expressive.
—Booklist

An exciting story and full-page, dramatically composed paintings depicting harrowing adventures with a mouse, a cat, and the crew imprisoned in a cookie jar make this a good holiday read-aloud.
—School Library Journal

Captain Cookie’s quest to rescue his crew from their cookie-jar imprisonment is not without peril, and humorous obstacles abound…Tavares’s vivid watercolor and gouache paintings dramatize Kladstrup’s lively text with vigor in this imaginative adventure story.
—The Horn Book

Cookie’s-eye-view illustrations and a story enlivened with dialogue make this boy’s version of the nutcracker sparkle.
—Foreword

Kladstrup makes the most of the adventurous possibilities, while Tavares's sumptuous full-bleed spreads and spot illustrations play with a cookie's-eye perspective.
—Shelf Awareness

An adventurous, hilarious story that brims with the magic of Christmas…pure delight.
—Kendal Rautzhan’s Books to Borrow, Books to Buy

An imaginative kid-pleaser.
—News Tribune

Red and green dominate Tavares’ bold illustrations, making this one of the most festive Christmas books.
—St. Paul Pioneer Press

About

"Swashbuckling gusto and a poignant finish should make this a new favorite." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

It’s Christmas Eve, and Jim and his mother have left pirate gingerbread men for Santa. Jim’s favorite is Captain Cookie, who carries a gingerbread cutlass and has a toothpick peg leg. Jim keeps him close by his bed. But late that night, when Jim is fast asleep, Captain Cookie step-taps away on a daring adventure to find his pirate crew and rescue them from that mysterious character he’s heard about: a cannibal named Santa Claus. This masterfully illustrated tale, sparkling with all the excitement of a pirate adventure, is a new holiday classic.

Creators

Kristin Kladstrup is the author of the middle-grade novel The Book of Story Beginnings. She lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

Matt Tavares is the author-illustrator of the New York Times best-selling picture book Dasher and its sequels, Dasher Can’t Wait for Christmas and Dasher and the Polar Bear, as well as Red and Lulu, the graphic novel Hoops, and several sports biographies, including Becoming Babe Ruth and Growing Up Pedro. He is also the illustrator of Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Jeff Gottesfeld, The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, and Over the River and Through the Wood by L. Maria Child, among many other picture books. Matt Tavares lives in Ogunquit, Maine.

Photos

additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo

Praise

Swashbuckling gusto and a poignant finish should make this a new favorite.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Large in scale and dramatic in effect, watercolor-and-gouache paintings create believable settings, sometimes seen from unusual perspectives, and sympathetically portray the characters, especially the pirates, whose icing-sugar mouths and eyes are surprisingly expressive.
—Booklist

An exciting story and full-page, dramatically composed paintings depicting harrowing adventures with a mouse, a cat, and the crew imprisoned in a cookie jar make this a good holiday read-aloud.
—School Library Journal

Captain Cookie’s quest to rescue his crew from their cookie-jar imprisonment is not without peril, and humorous obstacles abound…Tavares’s vivid watercolor and gouache paintings dramatize Kladstrup’s lively text with vigor in this imaginative adventure story.
—The Horn Book

Cookie’s-eye-view illustrations and a story enlivened with dialogue make this boy’s version of the nutcracker sparkle.
—Foreword

Kladstrup makes the most of the adventurous possibilities, while Tavares's sumptuous full-bleed spreads and spot illustrations play with a cookie's-eye perspective.
—Shelf Awareness

An adventurous, hilarious story that brims with the magic of Christmas…pure delight.
—Kendal Rautzhan’s Books to Borrow, Books to Buy

An imaginative kid-pleaser.
—News Tribune

Red and green dominate Tavares’ bold illustrations, making this one of the most festive Christmas books.
—St. Paul Pioneer Press
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