Pirate’s Alphabet is by Patti Wigington. It is a picture book for children four through eight-years-old. For each letter of the alphabet, Wigington gives a selection of pirate terms which starts with that letter. Ransom, racing, renegade and rigging are pirate terms for the letter R.

Pirate’s Alphabet text is informative. She presents the picture book in rhyme. Rum Key rhymes with the sea. Each page has a black strip on the outer edge. In the strip, is the letter of the alphabet and the related pirate terms. The letters are uppercase; there are no lowercase letters.

Patti Wigington gives children plenty of pirate information. They learn lots of pirate terms. She has a pirate glossary at the book’s end. There, she has definitions for each term or word introduced.

Kit Umscheid handles the illustrations. They are humorous. She takes a topic, pirates, which can be scary to young children and makes them a lovable lot. One way, she does this is by depicting the pirates with pets. There is the traditional parrot, but there is a fluffy black dog and white cat. Guys who care for a fluffy white cat are not very threatening. Her illustrations have great detail. There is plenty of action in the background as well as the foreground.

Pirate’s Alphabet is a different way to teach children the alphabet. But, the book works more as a dictionary of pirate terms in a story form. The picture book with its multi-cultural pirates will prepare children for reading more difficult pirate books. Kidnapped, Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson will draw the little maties in the future.



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