This is a Christmas themed story (see mention of Wise Men), but it can be read year-round. It's a cute book that children will fall in love with, and it showcases a wonderful message of acceptance regardless of differences. That's definitely a good thing for young readers to learn.
I would recommend this book to parents of young readers, and older readers too. It's well worth the read.
5 stars!
Pirates on the Shelf
My wife and I were living and teaching in a
college in Taiwan at the time when I presented my first gift of a book to my two boys. It was a beautiful old,
hard-bound edition of Treasure Island: Scribner’s 1911, mint condition, wonderfully illustrated by N. C. Wyeth. I showed them the marvelous
cover of the thing:
a couple of angry pirates with a sword in hand and pistols drawn and mutiny in
their eyes. I hefted the volume in
both hands for a moment and then handed it over to them with the deepest sense
of satisfaction and a promise to read it to them every night.
I must confess, I was a little disappointed
when, on the second night, I looked up from my reading to confront
two blank expressions. They just weren’t ‘getting it; didn’t have a
clue! My wife Shari- lyn was quick to
offer a bit of solace: “Don’t
forget, dear, they’re only one
and three.”
“Yeah...I know...but...”
“But” what? What did I expect? And what, on earth,
was I trying to do?
Immediately,
of course, I ordered some age-appropriate books from the States and began reading
those to the boys. It wasn’t
too long before they were sounding out words on their own, and shortly after
that, I was asking my
stateside family to send
us some easy readers.
And all the while those two angry pirates
were sitting there on that shelf...waiting...just waiting to take over.
We lived in the northernmost outskirts of Taipei. There
was not a word of English on our radio or TV
and cell phones and internet had not yet arrived. Whatever entertainment this
life might have for our boys would have to be dug, like a treasure, from the pages of a book. And it occurred to me that, in moving here and
living this way, we had transported
ourselves back to the past...
Have you ever thought of what it must have been like for
teens and pre-teens in ages gone by? Back in the days of no electronics: no screens, no video games, no TV to watch. Think of it: a ‘book’ was their only ‘device’! Treasure Island, A Journey to the Centre
of the Earth, The Swiss Family Robinson— even Moby Dick—these were a
teenager’s only escape! These were the
“video games” of ages past. I notice
that the authors of these wonderful works had no penchant for dumbing things
down. Teenagers looking for
entertainment would have to plough into these volumes and dig it up for themselves!
And so, of course, that’s what they did; after
all, the only other alternative was terminal boredom!
The result of all this was a wonderful world of
articulate, knowledgeable people—with or without formal education—with excellent vocabularies that far surpass our today!
One day, several
years later, I came back from my classes to discover that the “pirates” had finally stormed the house! “I’m reading Treasure
Island, Dad! It’s awesome,” my oldest son announced. He was twelve
years old, and he was reading
it to his younger brother.
Both have been avid readers
ever since, and now there are pirates
on their children’s shelves...just sitting there...waiting.
AMAL THE THIRSTY GAMAL Book Tour Giveaway
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