The Skeleton Pirate

The titular character is a kind of bony, swashbuckling Miles Gloriosus (yes, he’s a real skeleton, albeit one with pants and a pirate hat), who is fond of declaring, “I’ll never be beaten!” Which, of course, makes it all the funnier when he gets marooned inside a whale, wondering how he’ll get out. Luckily his whale-mate is a clever mermaid, who convinces the Skeleton Pirate to eschew fighting in favor of logic and persuasion—especially since the whale has also swallowed a lot of treasure. In gently spoofing his stock characters, Lucas (The Lying Carpet) offers up clever, brisk prose and dialogue, which should inspire even the most hesitant thespian to let ’er rip. The handsome ink-and-watercolor pictures, rendered with plenty of blood red and marine blue, tip their hat to the incident-filled, epic seafaring tales of yore, while slyly including plenty of winks and nudges. And while Lucas’s map of the whale’s innards—key to the plot—may not be zoologically correct, from a humor perspective it’s right on the money. Ages 3–7. (May)