PIRATE ADVENTURE

Build-a-tale suggestions for young would-be tars set on constructing nautical yarns of their own.

In a set of full-spread tableaux, readers first pick a main character from a set of 15 figures—ranging from a pirate queen to a parrot—and, amid prompts to go on, then select garb, gear, companions, vessels, foes, escapes, and rewards and fill out details of dialogue and plot in their own words. Beyond the occasional waving sword, there’s little reference to violence, and along with the predictable bling, the voyage’s suggested rewards include the story itself (“its own reward”) or, on a practical note, “a lifetime supply of toilet paper.” But while the figures show plenty of racial diversity (and one prospective “deck hand” is depicted using a wheelchair), the creators don’t try very hard to adhere to the nautical theme. The slate of protagonists, for instance, is padded out with landlubbers that include a prince and a princess, a knight and a warrior, a “monkey pirate,” and a goat. Of the 16 offered modes of travel, only a handful are actual ships (most of the rest are small boats along with a bathtub, a floating bed, a banana, and the back of a shark). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Ingenious concept but not seaworthy.