The Pirate Cruncher

This book was a hit with us and our 7 year old autistic son! He loves it!!! He is a collector of pirate stories. He loves a good pirate story that includes lots of laughs along with scary adventure. The pirate dialog is so authentic and very fun to read!! The story is awesome, it has a good lesson, the colors and drawing are fantastic. The paper and binding a good quality. Very cute characters. If your child is easily scared the story may be too much, (a great big kraken involved ) but for our pirate fantasy fan, it was just the excitement level he appreciates. He smiles his way through the story every night. It is one of the best pirate books in his collection. The one drawback is that some of the print placed on dark background is a little hard to see in poor light, so just turn those lights up.

I've lost track of how many times I've read "The Pirate Cruncher" for my twin 4.25-year-old sons in the few days since I purchased it. I love it because it's interesting to read aloud: there's a mix of reading text and singing verse, plus some of the pirate crew's thoughts are portrayed in illustrations so your pre-literate children can help "read" the book aloud too. My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE the story, and the illustrated clues on each page about the story's mystery. I can't recommend this book highly enough for 4+-year-olds. I too am surprised, like another reviewer, that it did not get a Caldecott award. We own several Caldecott award-winning books and while I see the difference in the sophistication of illustration between "Pirate Cruncher" and, say, "A Sick Day for Amos McGee", these illustrations engage my pre-literate kids on many levels and get them to help me tell the story aloud. Several months ago, I was becoming inclined to try longer, chapter books with my boys but then I read that experts say that parents are abandoning picture books too early for their pre-schoolers. This book is an outstanding example of how pictures can promote a real dialog between the adult reader and his/her audience. Such fun!

We had to warm up to this book. The illustrations are fantastic (that's a big deal in this house).The biggest draw backs to this book is the choice of fount and black type on a dark background. The publisher needed to help the author of the book understand the difficulty in reading "fancy" font; and then they made it more difficult to read by putting black font on a dark blue background.With that said after multiple read through I got good enough at reading/remembering the words that I am requested to read this book nearly every night.Also, there's a pretty cool fold down page toward the end of the book that my son loves (no spoiler alert).

I read this book for my summer camp (30 kids ages 5-8) on a day we did an underwater monster theme. Out of the ten books I did during camp, this was the one they liked the best and kept talking about. I introduced with a quick discussion of the Midas Touch and the dangers of greed, so the kids would know the story didn't end all rosy! I originally DID NOT want to read a book where everyone gets eaten, but it fit our theme so well and I'm glad we chose it, because it kept the kids captivated and it was one none of them had heard before.

Cute story about greedy pirates following a singing pirate to find treasure... of course they are bold and brave to begin with until the singing pirate tells them that this isn't a safe journey and the island disappears. Spoiler... the island is actually an ocean beast who eats them up and burps out the singing pirate.... who is a marionette. Clever, unexpected ending that had us roaring. We loved looking back at the pictures as we didn't even notice he was a marionette!

My kids have asked for this book over and over and over. The illustrations are well done with so much hidden. Every time we have read it we discover more. Fun rhymes and a little bit of singing. My kids are 2 and 4, but even I enjoy this book.

This was a big hit with my five year old. We got it as a present for someone else, but after we read it he requested that we buy it for our house. The pictures are very evocative. I did not find the story to be that compelling but my son did. This would be a great choice for a pirate loving kid.

My toddler loves stories about ‘the crackin’. This book was a perfect find! It’s a cute story and the illustrations are fun. I’ve recommended it to a few people.

This book has become a nightly staple, beautiful illustrations and a cute story line that pleases adults and children alike. Recommend!

My son loves this book and has memorized the entire thing. The illustrations were the inspiration for the mural we did in his room as well. Probably the best book we have found for him.

My grand daughters love all the boks by this author. They especially love the drawings.

This is a fun story with a great twist. My grandkids loved it.

My daughter loves this book! It's impossible to read in a straight voice - you are compelled to sound like a pirate as you read it. So much fun!