SHIVER ME TIMBERS!: PIRATE POEMS & PAINTINGS

by Douglas Florian & Ill. by Robert Neubecker

 Florian, Douglas. 2012. SHIVER ME TIMBERS!: PIRATE POEMS & PAINTING New York: Beach Lane Books. ISBN 9781442413214.

Plot Summary:

SHIVER ME TIMBERS! is a compilation of silly poems about pirates with highly animated cartoon style illustrations throughout the book. This funny pirate poetry book is filled with simple word, alternating sentence rhymes that are enhanced by the captivatingly drawn illustrations that enhance each line of poetic hilarity. One without the other would truly be lacking, but the marriage of words and pictures works overwhelmingly well. This is an excellent book to read aloud to children between the ages of 8 and 10. The book offers the reader some excellent and novel uses of pirate speak throughout the poems, like “Me scraggly beard Is very weird,” and poem titles like, Pirate Patter, Buried Treasure, and Arrr! A fun and playful read for young children and scallywags alike.      

Critical Analysis:

In SHIVER ME TIMBERS! the use of simple, easy to understand vocabulary in an alternating sentence or pair sentence rhyming style is evident for most of the poems in the book. Many of the poems use repeating words or phrases to create a lyrical or song-like quality to them such as in the poem Me, Pirate, “Me nose is long. Me ears look wrong.”

The use of the figurative language of pirate speak such as descriptions of oneself in the “me” form instead of the “I” form and the use of words like, “Whar,” for where and “landlubbers” for land lovers exemplify the theme of the poems immensely. Each set of phrases describes how pirates live and their tools of the trade.

Douglas Florian has a way of taking the rude, crude, and vile pirate and turning him into a whimsical and colorful figure not to be emulated or revered. This is further stated in the last line of the last poem called A Priates’s Life, which concludes, “A pirate’s life is not for me!” and shows a young boy rowing away from a pirate ship.

Intended for readers between 8 and 12 years old, the poems are fun and minimally threatening at times like in the poem Me Pirate Weapons, which is written on a black page and illustrated showing only a pirates mean, bloodshot eyes and snarling teeth.

Review Excerpt:

The Horn Book reviews states, “Using stereotypical pirate-speak, each poem explores a familiar aspect of pirate lore and takes it to a new level of rhythm and rhyme, usually with a final line calculated to evoke a chuckle,” (The Horn Book, 2012).

The book’s Kirkus Starred Review stated, “…Bouncy verse is ably complemented by Neubecker’s pitch-perfect art.” 

The School Library Journal Starred Review stated, “The up- and downsides of life on a pirate ship are evident in Neubecker’s bold, colorful, detail-filled cartoon-like illustrations, outlined in India ink. Kids, boys especially, will be charmed by these feisty poems.”

Connections:

The best way to make a connection to Douglas Florian’s work is with other Douglas Florian work like COMETS, STARS, THE MOON, AND MARS: SPACE POEMS AND PAINTINGS or DINOTHESAURUS: PREHISTORIC POEMS AND PAINTINGS or POETREES. The common element in all of these works is their picture book format paired with the poet’s poetry. Even though Robert Neubecker illustrated the SHIVER ME TIMBERS! book most of the illustrations follow Florian’s two-page spread and whimsical style.

Personal Response:

With limited experience with Douglas Florian’s work, I found the book to be very entertaining, especially when I read the poems aloud. This is a great book that I can share with my grandsons who are 3 and 6 months old. I am sure that the cartoon-like pictures, repeating phrases and funny pirate words will be a big hit with my pre-school grandsons. I have done a Skype story time session with them before, so this book will be a great one to do so again.  

References:

The Horn Book (2012). Shiver Me Timbers!: Pirate Poems & Paintings book review by Robin Smith. http://www.hbook.com/2012/09/choosing-books/review-of-the-week/reviews-of-pirateria-and-shiver-me-timbers/

Kirkus Review (2012). Shiver Me Timbers!: Pirate Poems & Paintings book review https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/douglas-florian/shiver-me-timbers/

Neubecker Books (n.d.). Shiver Me Timbers!: Pirate Poems & Paintings book cover.  http://neubeckerbooks.com/collections/shiver-me-timbers-by-doug-florian#!/image_8095

School Library Journal (2012). Shiver Me Timbers!: Pirate Poems & Paintings book review by Susan Scheps. http://www.slj.com/2012/08/reviews/pick-of-the-day/pick-of-the-day-shiver-me-timbers-pirate-poems-paintings/