Ned the Knitting Pirate

Pirates don’t knit, generally speaking, but a young one named Ned does, and he’s sticking with it. His jolly colleagues sing, “We’re tougher than gristle and barnacle grit,/ We heave, and we ho, and we swab, and we...” “Knit!” finishes Ned, who’s sitting behind a barrel doing just that. “A scurvy pirate doesn’t knit, nor wear a fuzzy hat,” the captain growls. Writing verse that hits every metrical accent with a rousing beat is no easy task, but Murray (City Shapes) crafts her rhymes as conscientiously as Ned works on his knitting. In Lammle’s (Princess Wannabe) nonthreatening pirate world, captain and crew have big troll-like noses, and they dance and sing when the pirating is going well. An attack on the ship by a hungry, reptilian sea monster gives Ned the chance to show how handy it is to have an extra-cozy knitted blanket on hand. Ned’s stout commitment to knitting and his poise in the face of derision make him a thoroughly lovable hero. Ages 6–9. [em]Author’s agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House. Illustrator’s agency: Wernick & Pratt. (Aug.) [/em]