Children's bookclub: The Jolley Roger and Ghostley Galleon by Jonny Duddle

[RachelMumsnet]

Jonny Duddle's The Pirates Next Door won the 2012 Waterstones Children's Book Prize and has sold over 100,000 copies in paperback in the UK. We're delighted to announce the first in a brand new series and Ruddle's fiction debut is children's book choice for April.

Join Jim Lad and Matilda as they sail the seven seas (and the coast of Dull-on-Sea) in search of adventure and pirate loot.

If you'd like to get your hands on one of fifty free copies of this book, apply here and then come back and let us know what you think on this thread, or review the book and discuss on twitter

This book looks really fun - I think DS1 would enjoy it.

This giveaway is now closed. We will notify those who have been selected to receive a copy via email. We would love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to discuss the book on this thread.

Hello. I received this book today - read it already!

Things we liked about this book:

• short chapters and largeish font - easy to read.
• the poems / songs that rhyme - fun - especially if you attempt a pirate voice!
• some 'jokes for parents' hidden in there - e.g. the policeman called Klewless.
• totally loved the pirate glossary in the back - fab idea and explanations. a good skill for kids to learn (looking the meaning of words up).
• The illustrations were fun.
• I also liked that some pages were white text on black background and vice versa - breaks up the pages and helps you find your place if you drop it!
• we liked that there was a male AND a female hero - and everyone loves a dog that saves the day!

what we didn't like as much:

• the plot seemed a bit of a copy of pirates of the Caribbean, and was a bit simplistic -key just so happened to be found in neighbours house - though that's my adult view. The sentence structure and vocabulary were quite complex and seemed a bit at odd with the simple plot.
• I don't know if its because its a series, because we haven't read the others to find out, but I thought the two main characters lacked depth to their characters. There was a lot of narrative about what they did and said and not that much about thoughts and feelings.

overall, it was a fun book to read out aloud as an adult and was enjoyed in our household. I think it would perhaps be better to read the books in order. if your child is a pirate-obsessive, this is the book for you!

Many thanks for copy of this book which we received yesterday. I didn't receive an email but it was a nice surprise when it arrived in the post.

My 6yo dd is loving it so far, she is about halfway through and is finding it very engaging. She is normally more interested in stories about fairies (yawn!) or puppies and kittens so this makes a really nice change.

I will report back when she has finished it, but so far it's great and I have a feeling we will be buying more in the series.

We received our copy yesterday. Thank you, we have both really enjoyed. It took us three sittings over the last two days to complete it. Before reading it we briefly revisited our edition of The Pirates Next Door. My ds (4) enjoyed finding the hidden references to this former book (many of the residents' valuables were given to them by the Jolley-Rogers) and indeed to Duddle's more recent Gigantosaurus (one character from this book is now a museum exhibit). Ds got the 'Klewless' joke and found it quite funny. He rather admired and liked the character of Bones due to his 'bravery'.

This particular chapter book worked very well for us. It is easy to read aloud and has a pleasant flow to it. The jump from Duddle's picture book to chapter book is not too daunting. The humour and illustrations here are in keeping with what has gone before and my ds was easily able to concentrate on what was happening. I will be on the look out for future chapter books in this series.

I thought this was a fabulous book! Short chapters, large font, easy to read, lots of illustrations and plenty of humour too. Plenty of opportunity to adopt a pirate accent when reading aloud too!

Whilst appealing to both boys and girls, I think it would be a great choice for girls who don't want to read yet another book about fairies, princesses and animals. I predict that this will be a huge hit in the school library where I volunteer, and I shan't hesitate to recommend it to the children.

What a nice surprise this book was. DS aged 8 sat down and read it this afternoon in about an hour. While he was reading NOTHING was going to distract him, he even ignored dad coming home early.
He loved it.
DS says he gives The Jolley Rogers and the Ghostly Galleon 5 stars out of 5. He thinks the word quality was excellent (I think this means he didn't get stuck on difficult words). He said the pictures were OK but there could have been maybe 2 less.
He has also retold the story to me with bits of acting ( notably a dog biting a ghost pirates wooden leg) and some space hopper bouncing which may not have been in the book. DS recommends this book to two of his friends who like pirates and too a third who likes pirates but will need someone to read it to him

I think this book worked for DS as the text is broken up with illustrations, the font is nice and large and the story was exciting. Normally a book with 150 pages would be off puttingly thick and he would not chose to read it.

DS. is now re. reading this book.

And has dug out his ghostly galleons game and is small world playing scenes from the book.

Thank you for our copy. DS (aged 5) is already a big fan of the other Jonny Duddle books so this was a great next book for him. We are reading a couple of chapters a night and he loves the familiarity of the characters and the story itself. I think he would prefer some colour photos but maybe that's because he is used to those from the previous books.
This will definitely be a book we will be re-reading many times.

This is my DS ( nearly 4) first chapter book and he really has loved it. It's taken about 4 sittings over 2 days as he has just wanted to keep reading it.
I think that it's possibly a little old for him contents wise, but he genuinely has been hooked.

Very excited to receive a free copy as hadn't had an email. We loved the Pirates who Lived Next Door and this is a perfect next step for ds who is moving on to chapter books. Loved the story and the pictures.

Thank you for this book. DS1 (8) really enjoyed it. I haven't read it, but the illustrations are great, and the glossary was very informative whilst being tongue in cheek. It was most useful when I couldn't remember what a fo'c'sle was (not a word I use every day!)

We hadn't heard of the Pirates Next Door before, but I've requested it from the library for DS2.

DS says: I liked the characters (especially the dog) because they were courageous and stuck together to beat the odds.

I also liked the picture of the police after the robbery at Dull-On-Sea Museum saying ‘we’re baffled’ for newspapers and the TV because it was pointless having them there if they were just going to say ‘we’re baffled’ and also their tummies were showing.

The last part I liked was when Bones (the pirate dog) jumped and caught the key of souls while dodging several pairs of hands, a cutlass and a rusty pike because the author used ‘graceful doggy acrobatics’.

Thank you for this book. I didn't get an email so it was a lovely surprise to get it in the post!

I love the size, shape and feel of it (I know I'm weird!). It feels really substantial in my hands, really good quality.

This is the first chapter book we have read to DD1 (aged 4) who loves all things piratey. She wasn't impressed with the black and white illustrations but I disagree, they are fantastic.

We are reading a chapter at a time. She recognises a lot from her substantial viewing of Jake and the Neverland Pirates! She has surprised me with her knowledge of crow's nests and bows etc.

It has been lovely reading this with her and discussing what treasures we would hide from the pirates. She was a bit scared of Grandpa Rogers but bravely let me carry on.

We are still reading it but give it a big thumbs up so far.

This is such a great book

Straight away, six year old DS and I loved the illustrations - They were great and full of little details, DS was poring over them straight away.

He took it straight up to his room and had finished it within a couple of hours. This was quite a surprise to me - as much as he loves reading ( and he really does!) he normally takes longer to read a chapter book of this length, maybe spaces it out over the course of a few days...but this one clearly had him hooked.

His verdict? "Mummy...can you guess? It was amazing!"

He enjoyed it so much and is now on his second reading.

We hadn't read any of Jonny Duddle's books before, but ordered 'The Pirates Next Door' within a day or so and that too is a massive hit in our house, both with DS and DD aged four. I predict we will be getting his whole back catalogue very soon indeed .

I read it myself last night and I liked it a lot - the layout is great and every page is a delight. I really do love his illustration style, the dark backgrounds for some pages (to link in with the more tense parts of the story) were very effective and nearly in graphic novel territory - certainly not a bad thing as far as I'm concerned! The story was fairly straightforward and captured DS's imagination - I know that some previous posters have mentioned it was a little derivative of certain films etc but nearly every story ever told is as old as the hills, with a little tweaking here and there to freshen it up -I suspect an adults jaded fiction palate is a little more unforgiving than a six year olds! My own six year old loved this book, as did I

Many thanks indeed for our copy.

DD and I have just finished reading this. She is almost 4 and it's her first chapter book. She really enjoyed it and I liked reading it to her. She had many questions and has asked to read it again. We will look out for more Jonny Duddle books as DD loves pirates :)

I love this book! Thank you so much for sending me a copy. Just started reading it to my DS(5) a chapter at a time and he's really enjoying it. I had a read through it myself first and was very impressed. Agree with PP that the size and 'chunky' style of the book makes it feel really good quality. Excellent all round.

DD (6) finished the book in a couple of days, she loved the story and the pictures, and I loved the fact that she wasn't reading about princesses. The book has a really nice feel in the hand and the font and chapter length are great for early readers. More please!

Wow what a great book! Excellent story and characters very funny and although this was a thick book slightly grown up feel the pictures where great and writing big and clear
My two children loved this book so much x

This was a fab little book with reasonable size chapters and great illustrations. My 8 year old niece loves it. I'm sure her younger brother will love it when he's a bit older.

Thanks for the free copy.