Nadia Ali

This was a humorous little story about some pirates finding a treasure map leading them to a library, where the treasure are the books. While the pirate concept was great and the illustrations will certainly appeal to very young readers, the story was just so-so. There were some clever details, like the 'no squawking' sign which was funny, or the repetition of 'the captain, his crew and the parrot too', which always appeals to little children. But at the end, the story-telling felt uninspired and I wondered if this could have worked just as well (or better) as a pure picture book without words.

At the end a listing of the Dewey system is added, but I wonder who is the target group for that? Surely not the little toddlers who will be delighted by the colorful pictures and the very simple story?! So what about the Moms (or Dads) who will most likely read those stories? I guess they could gain some knowledge from the list, but will it help them in the children's section of the library? I don't think so - the system doesn't even have an entry for children's literature, much less any subcategories for children's literature, such as picture books, first readers, non-fiction, or subjects like adventure, friendship, animals an so on.

Conclusion: the book has beautiful pictures with funny details to explore, but could do without the text. However, as the target group can't read by themselves yet, it is easy to completely omit or at least pep up the written story.… (mehr)

This title introduces the Dewey Decimal System as a treasure map, which blows out of the library and is found by real pirates. They promptly visit the library to find the treasure. The adventure touches on appropriate library behavior, and the great variety of books you can find in the library, and that books are borrowed but not kept forever. Oddly enough, the story doesn't mention the Dewey Decimal system, other than it is represented on the treasure map as a compass rose. It is explained in the back matter in detail. The story itself is amusing and would serve as a good introduction to the library. Be sure to read it through first before reading it aloud to a group - there is one page where the Captain wants to take all the books and the librarian is explaining that books must be borrowed and returned, but the way the text and pictures are laid out, it is not obvious which text block should be read first. The bottom left text should come before the upper right hand text, and that isn't extremely obvious until you read it. Overall, it would be a good choice to introduce young students to the library.… (mehr)