Melinda Long and David Shannon. Pirates Don’t Change Diapers
Harcourt    $19.95  ISBN 978-0-15-205353-6  32 pg.
Reviewed by Meghan, Age 15

Jeremy Jacob used to be a pirate and his pirate friends buried a treasure in his backyard. One day, his mother goes to the store, leaving him to baby-sit his baby sister, Bonney Anne. Then his pirate friends show up and wake Bonney Anne up. Now the pirates have to take care of Bonney Anne and try and get her back to sleep.

Pirates Don’t Change Diapers is an exciting story that will enthrall and delight children. Melinda Long and David Shannon have previously written one other story about the exploits of Jeremy Jacob, How I Became a Pirate. Pirates Don’t Change Diapers would be an excellent read for new readers, who are just beginning to get a grip on longer sentences and paragraphs. The language is simple and the plot entertaining. The font is easy to read and the text is fairly large. I thought that the plot doesn’t exactly hold up throughout the entire story, but I think that children will enjoy it.

The illustrations in Pirates Don’t Change Diapers are large and colorful, very appealing to young children. Although there are thirty-two pages in the story, only sixteen of them have text. The full page drawings that accompany every page are very busy, but pleasing to the eye on the whole. The pictures of the pirates are particularly entertaining; each pirate is large, colorful and unique. The illustrations are entertaining and match the content of the story well.

I enjoyed reading Pirates Don’t Change Diapers and I think that most children will heartily enjoy it also. The pirates are a lot of fun and their antics will amuse children. I would recommend Pirates Don’t Change Diapers for children up to age seven. I think that even children who can’t read would enjoy having this story read to them and looking at the pictures.

This reviewer gives Pirates Don’t Change Diapers four and a half swashbuckling stars.