Damon Young (text), Peter Carnavas (illustrations), My Pop is a Pirate, UQP, 25 February 2015, $24.95, 32pp., ISBN 9780702253614
Following on from My Nanna is a Ninja this is a rollicking look at four quite different pops. They each have quirky personalities, clothing, forms of transport, favourite sayings, food choices, hobbies and sleeping styles. The repeated refrain “But my pop is a pirate…” will appeal to very young listeners and the alliteration, rhyme and rhythm make this a book which can be read, explored and discussed with older children as well.
Peter Carnavas’s water colour and ink illustrations flesh out each character and add layers to the text such as giving each pop an expressive pet which appears in every scene.
I did wonder why the decision was made to refer to the grandfathers throughout the story as ‘pop’ rather than ‘Pop’, given that the word does have another meaning. When reading the text, having it in lower case just didn’t look right or scan very well. Because of their importance as main characters, my personal preference would have been ‘Pop’.
Teachers’ Notes are available on the UQP website.
reviewed by Julie Long
