THE ERIE CANAL PIRATES

Kimmel and Glass (Grizz!, 2000) reunite for a rousing original tale of battle between canal pirates and a crew of mail carriers. Modeling his rhyme on the old ballad beginning, “We were 40 miles from Albany / Forget it I never shall . . . ” Kimmel pits “Bill McGrew and his pirate crew / The Terror of Buffalo,” against intrepid Captain Flynn, who carries the fight from Mohawk into Lake Ontario, to the whirlpool beneath Niagara Falls. While the pirates go down to become watery ghosts wandering the Tonawanda shore, Flynn, with the aid of his trusty mule Ole Frank, tales his flatboat up the Falls to safety. In an afterword, Kimmel explains the origin of his story—a visit to a class that had been studying the Erie Canal, where he began to make up the idea of pirates—and the geographical liberties he took. Glass adds to the fun with wet-brushed scenes of rumpled boats and equally rumpled river men, the latter sporting floppy hats and heavy facial hair. Children will want to book return trips after this anything-but-uneventful voyage. (map) (Picture book. 6-9)