The Pirates Next Door

Great Read! Absolutely Love this book. The Story is great for Children and making friends. The illustrations are wonderful and exciting! Would highly recommend.

This was the first of Jonny Duddle's pirate books that I read and is now one of my favorite pirate books to read my son. A family of Pirates, including a young boy, move into a small town temporarily and the boy befriends the little girl next door. She has no bias towards him and is excited about learning all of the unique and exotic things about him and his family. The rest of the neighbors are pretty awful and judgmental, all because the Jolley-Rogers are different. The Pirates leave behind gifts for everyone, in hopes that they will think more highly of their kind the next time they encounter them. I am someone who very thoroughly believes in the importance of being oneself and celebrating the things that make you who you are, especially if you are different or weird. So this book struck a chord with me. I really enjoyed how it portrayed the characters, making it clear that Tilda, the girl, was the one with an appropriate attitude and that the other neighbors were shallow and jumping to poor conclusions, but in a way that is still enjoyable to read. I think it's a great "teaching" book. The art is just fantastic and springs from the page. The colors and details are wonderful. There is also a foldout section towards the end that adds a nice touch to the enjoyment of the story. This is written in rhyme and the flow and rhythm is so much fun to read aloud. There is a lot of great "pirate speak" and the voices of all of the characters are a joy to ham up to kids. This and The Pirate Cruncher are new favorites that I know will be getting a lot of attention at bedtime.

Love this story! Super cute and the kids loved it. Fantastic illustrations as well.

Great book!

The book's written in fun rhyme. The artwork is full page and beautiful. We like to find the skulls and other "Easter eggs" on each page. There's one moment of great irony on one page in the artwork that took us forever to notice. The story is so good. But be sure to really notice what's going on in the artwork! Such a great book for kids (and their grown ups)!

ok as parent and reader, I love this book. the wording gets a bit sticky at points but the surprise ending is absolutely precious. my son, however, is not interested and I cannot figure it out because he's in a pirate phase. He loves 'How I became a pirate'.. and it's almost as long. and this one has a much better lesson than running off from your parents, just saying.

Johnny Duddle pirate books are fun. The rhyming is really good. The words and illustrations take you into a pirates world. The reading got a bit tiresome of the neighbor's gab, but afterwards the young pirate boy gives an unexpected surprise to the readers. The lesson in this book is simple but adults sure could take notes and remember to zip the li more often.

Kid loves this book