PIRATE TREASURE MAP

Plotted out on a removable map tucked into a front pocket, young Jack Hubbard’s search for treasure takes him past some familiar figures in this new outing from the creators of Fairytale News (2004). Leaving his Old Mother to mind the Dish and Spoon Inn, Jack is conveyed by an Owl and a Pussycat in a beautiful pea-green boat to a shore where the Bong Tree grows, then follows his map toward the Dark, Dark Wood. Along the way, he directs Hansel and Gretel toward a tasty house he’s just sampled, falls in with three Gruff hikers to get over Troll’s Bridge, and, ignoring the warnings of a trio of ghostesses sitting on postesses, ventures into the Wood to find—TREASURE! Plus a happy ending. The loose-lined, easily recognizable cartoon figures are sometimes forced to the edges by a long but not wordy text in which two more or less complete folktales are imbedded. Still, Jack’s jaunt will delight all Miss Muffets and Boy Blues. (Picture book. 7-9)