The Pirates Next Door (The Jolley-Rogers #1)

Veiled in humor, but hard not to read as a parable that tweaks narrow minds and parochial attitudes.

Good fences make good neighbors, but pirates? Not so much. At least not according to the residents of the tiny, proper town of Dull-on-Sea ("Sister city: Ennui-sur-Mer"), most of whom are horrified when the Jolley-Rogers family roll into town on their galleon-on-wheels. "Isn't it disgraceful, on such a lovely street?/ Why, they don't even try to keep their front lawn looking neat!" Next-door neighbor Matilda, however, is thrilled by all the excitement, and she befriends pirate boy Jim Lad. Once the family's ship is, well, shipshape, the Jolley-Rogers set sail, leaving buried treasure (marked by an X, of course) in their wake as a goodwill gesture (this is not the first town that's rallied against them). Duddle's (The Pirate Cruncher) rhymes have the buoyant, singsong quality of a sea shanty, but are weighed down by a fairly preachy plot. His cinematic and richly developed digital artwork, however, is well-suited to the absurdity of the subject matter, and he does an excellent job of exaggerating the pirates' slightly menacing yet silly appearance and the concerned glances and raised eyebrows of the unwelcoming community. Ages 3-up. (Feb.)

Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 2—Life for Matilda in the town of Dull-on-Sea is, well, dull. Just when she is wishing that things were less boring, a family of pirates moves in next door. There is a boy her age, Jim, and their completely unconventional lifestyle lifts the ennui from the gloomy town. But one young girl's thrill is the rest of the neighborhood's nightmare, as rumors and the community's aesthetic demise lead to a full-on campaign to ship the Jolley-Rogers back where they came from. Tilda and Jim do not seem concerned by the disapproval of others; he accepts it as a matter of course (Dull-on-Sea is merely a pit stop for his family as they repair their ship, parked next to the house) and Tilda is a stouthearted advocate for pirates. Yet this lighthearted story belies a wretched truth—that grown-ups are judgmental, though they can be easily swayed when they find buried treasure in their backyards. Fans of pirates won't really care about the mixed message; they will be having too much fun listening to the rhyming text and looking at the details in the caricatured pictures. Pirate paraphernalia abounds, and there is even a hint that the complaints manager at Town Hall is a pirate himself, unbeknownst to the locals. The layout, combining spreads and cartoon blocking, keeps the story moving and reinforces the idea of different voices gossiping about the town's eccentric new residents. A jolly good tale for one-on-one sharing.—Kara Schaff Dean, Walpole Public Library, MA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

The digital art features slightly exaggerated figures that could easily have stepped out of an animated film... The real fun comes in the contrast between the visual minutiae of the pirate family and the depiction of the "normal" people. It's in no way subtle, but pirate-wannabes won't bat an eye patch.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Duddle has written a delightful story sure to entertain all pirate lovers!
—Library Media Connection (highly recommended)

We've all wanted to run off and be pirates sailing the seven seas and shouting "Argh" at people, but how many of us have had pirates move in next door? Matilda has.
—Huffington Post Parents blog