Crimi – Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies

Crimi, Carolyn. Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies. Cambridge, Mass.; Candlewick, 2005.

As Henry & the Buccaneer Bunnies opens, we find Henry – son of the dread pirate captain Barnacle Blackear – constantly jibbed by the rest of the crew for reading instead of attending to his piratey duties. When Henry’s book-learning warns him of an impending storm, the rest of the pirates ignore him. Naturally, the storm destroys their ship, the Salty Carrot, & the buccaneer bunnies are marooned on an island. Henry’s books then come in handy to teach the pirates how to survive on the deserted island. In the end, the pirates are content to stay on their island – except for trips to the library.

The book is pretty good, although the ending is sloppy & overly-contrived with a poor transition from the pirates using their book-learning to suddenly being avid library-goers. John Manders’ illustrations for the book are excellent with nice little easter-eggs for pirate fans, such as burning fuses tied to Blackear’s ears. A variety of different pirates are given enough of an identity for ‘silly-voice storytimers’ like me to entertain an audience. A September 2005 Kirkus review called it an “unsubtle plug for bookworms everywhere,” with the “worthy message” that “‘Aye! Buccaneer Bunnies will always need books!’”[1]

At my library, we’re preparing for the 2010 Collaborative Summer Reading Program- which has a “Water” theme – an obvious plea to us youth services librarians for… PIRATE STORYTIMES!!!!. Henry & the Buccaneer Bunnies would be suitable for inclusion in a late Pre-school/ Kindergarten age storytime, with the aforementioned silly pirate voices. I’m always a big fan of crafts for storytime & I really like wearable crafts – for Henry, I envision folded-newspaper pirate hats with bunny-skull-and-crossbones (as seen in Manders’ title-page illustration).

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[1] Kirkus Reviews 2005 September #1 as found in Baker & Taylor Title Source 3. (http://ts3f.informata.com/TS3/record.jsp?rn=2&ps=2&fr=0&anc=2&bs=1&fb=0&n=E%3A\webapp\ts3\main\users\ls000293.rec&FirstRec=Y)