The Jolley-Rogers and the Ghostly Galleon - Softcover

Jonny Duddle is the author-illustrator of the hugely successful picture books The Pirate Cruncher, The Pirates Next Door, and The King of Space. The Pirates Next Door has sold over 100,000 copies in paperback in the U.K. and won the 2012 Waterstones Children's Book Prize. Jonny Duddle also worked as a character designer for Aardman Animation's Oscar-nominated film The Pirates! He lives in Wales with his wife and two young children.

Duddle punctuates his larger-than-average prose with theatrical verse ("Some say we're cursed, some say we're dead! / We're in search of a key as you sleep in bed!") and tucks in plenty of elaborately detailed monochrome illustrations featuring a likewise monochrome cast of comically clueless white landlubbers and leering corsairs in classic pirate garb. A rousingly melodramatic face-off ends as it should, whereupon the Jolley-Rogers sail off once again...A pleaser for young swashbucklers.
—Kirkus Reviews

This early chapter book is full of intrigue, spookiness, and pirate tales that will capture the attention of emerging and struggling readers. Gray-scale illustrations show Duddle’s attention to artistic detail, and his creative use of black backgrounds and white text whenever characters are plunged into darkness heightens the feel of danger and excitement. More adventures ahoy! Book two, The Jolley-Rogers and the Cave of Doom, publishes simultaneously.
—Booklist

The Jolley-Rogers is distinguished by its top-notch writing, original sea chanteys, dry humor, lively design and deliciously dramatic illustrations just right for a tale of salty ghost pirates. (The second in the series, The Jolley-Rogers and the Cave of Doom, is published simultaneously.) All aboard, me hearties!
—Shelf Awareness for Readers