A nifty read, and less fluff than you'd expect from the pictures - which are lovely, as always. ( )

Common for Ezra Jack Keats, this story provides a storyline that will enchant a variety of ages. This is a story that covers different types of families, homes, pets, death/loss, friendship, morals, ethics, and the ability of children to truly experience life together.

Ages: 4-8
Source: Personal Collection

Maggie and the Pirate by Ezra Jack Keats, like his Clementina's Cactus, is a departure from his usual urban based picture books.

Maggie lives in an undisclosed tropical place. It could Florida, Southern California, Hawaii or somewhere else. To me, with the green skies, it looks like Florida. Maggie has a pet cricket, Niki. But she and her pet are being stocked by a mysterious bully who calls himself "the pirate."

Niki is taken and Maggie in her quest to rescue her pet learns more about the Pirate. And he, in turns, learns about Maggie. But poor Niki. Somehow out of all of this, the Pirate learns about friendship and Maggie has the maturity to forgive. ( )

and the Pirate (A Blue Ribbon Book) by Ezra Jack Keats (1992) When Maggie realizes her cricket has been kidnapped she goes on a search to find it. She eventually ends up at a pirates tree house and finds her cricket dead. Her new friends and her bury it. At the end of the story she gets a new cricket.This is an easy picture book. It is fiction. ( )