Captain Sparky and the Pool Pirates

Captain Sparky and the Pool Pirates is a story that comes straight from the vivid imagination of Author T.E. Antonino. Sparky is a little girl with a personality to match her name. But Sparky is in a predicament. She needs to write a story for her fourth grade English assignment and she doesn’t know what to write about. Her Mom tries to prompt her to write about different things but Sparky doesn’t think those things are interesting. But, as luck will have it, while Sparky is at the pool with her Mom, three pirates emerge from the pool drain—Goggle, Bobble, and Captain Wobble! Sparky is so excited to meet these pirates and makes a deal with them. They will teach her how to be a pirate and she will teach them how to be nice. Apparently, pirates don’t know how to be nice. Who’d of thought?

What I really enjoyed about this book is the light humor and fun characters. I can imagine this being read to a small child by an older child and both kids laughing as Sparky goes on some silly adventures with the pirates.

The book alternates between Sparky being in her classroom reading her pirate story to the other kids in her class and the actual Sparky and the Pool Pirates adventures. The pirates are quirky and fun and things that would never happen in real life occur in the story this imaginative little girl tells her class. For example, at one point in the book they group is waiting for a williwaw to make their ship sail. But instead, one of the pirates says, “I wish we had black pepper.” One of the pirates has a black pepper shaker in his pocket and they throw the pepper into the air. With everyone sneezing, the air from their sneezes make the sails work and push the boat to move.

The front cover has an illustration of Sparky surrounded by all of the characters and other things in the story from the pirate ship to a sea hippopotamus to the other creatures she encounters. Throughout the book, there are also illustrations of what the characters are doing in that chapter. The pictures are detailed and fun and will also be enjoyed by readers.

Captain Sparky and the Pool Pirates will be a welcome addition to any library or elementary school-aged children’s book shelf. Kids will want to read it over and over again because of it’s simple, silly story and each time they’ll know to watch out for the mean Jerky Turkeys!