Story Time Monday

The Preschoolers at my school are making gingerbread houses tomorrow, so I thought this book would be perfect for Story Time Monday. Jim and his mother make gingerbread cookies on Christmas Eve, decorating them as pirates. Jim puts some in the cookie jar and sets some out on a plate for Santa Claus. Captain Cookie, the peg-legged captain, is his favorite pirate cookie, and Jim carries him up to his bedside table. "I wish you had a ship," he whispers, and he falls asleep.

Jim fell asleep, but Captain Cookie went on listening.

Where’s my crew? He wondered. And who’s this Santa Claus who wants to eat them?

Captain Cookie makes his way downstairs where he is astonished to find a big tree full of stars, and meets two other pirates, Dots and Wavy, who have climbed down from the cookie plate up on the mantle. They realize that the rest of the crew is up on the cupboard shelf, and climb up to them.

They're in jail! cried Dots when they reached the top.

They try to kick down the prison walls, but to no avail, and when Santa Claus lifts up the top to take a cookie, Captain Cookie bravely steps forward and shouts, "Don't eat my crew!" Santa doesn't eat the crew, but does do a bit of Christmas magic so that Jim ends up with a wonderful toy pirate ship, crew, and captain on Christmas morning.

This was a fun book to read, full of humor, adventure, magic, and very different from the predictable sweetness of most Christmas stories.

As you can see, the illustrations are quite vivid. They made me want to run right home and make some pirate cookies!