School Library Journal Review
PreS-K-Singsong, rhyming text tells of the pre-bedtime adventures of three pink-cheeked children and their dog. Watery illustrations in blues, greens, and oranges create a dreamy mood as the bedroom scene evolves and expands into full-bleed spreads of high-sea adventure. The children in their small bed-turned-boat encounter enemy pirates, and a swordfight ensues. But the outnumbered pajama pirates manage to trick everyone by turning their mast into a pretend ghost. Some of the rhymes feel a bit forced and, as pirate stories go, this one's tone is incongruously sweet and gentle.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lammle (Once Upon a Saturday) creates a gratifyingly warm world for newcomer Kramer's story of three children's nightly pirate game. The siblings jump on their beds ("Let others sleep;/ their day is done./ The treasure hunt/ has just begun") as they imagine an adventure for themselves. They sport cute, clownlike noses and fuzzy bedwear as they board a rowboat, their bedroom giving way to the scalloped waves of the sea, the horizon curving gently beneath them. Each spread is characterized by lots of movement; strong contrast defines and sculpts the chubby figures, and deftly applied white brushstrokes put sparkle on the waves and shine on somersaulting fish. Menaced by shiploads of non-pajama-wearing pirates, the oldest child, draped in a terrycloth bathrobe, strokes her chin and wonders what to do (" ¿Ye be shark bait, swim or sink!'/ Pajama pirates stop to think"). The three make the sail into a ghostly, flapping apparition, and the terrified pirates flee. But even these pirates have their betters, as Mama Nature, appearing as a cloud, sends them back to bed for further buccaneer dreams. Ages 5-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
