Beware, Pirates!

Beware, Pirates!

(Canadian Flyer Adventures #1)

written by Frieda Wishinsky

illustrated by Dean Griffiths

Maple Tree Press, 2007

978-1-897066-80-5 (pb) $6.95

for Grades 1 to 3

Danger, Dinosaurs!

(Canadian Flyer Adventures #2)

978-1-897066-82-9(pb) $6.95

Crazy for Gold

(Canadian Flyer Adventures #3)

978-1-897066-93-5 (pb) $6.95

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

What child can resist a great adventure? Add in the element of time travel and you have a sure winner on your hands! In Frieda Wishinsky's new series, Canadian Flyer Adventures, two young friends, Emily and Matt, are exploring Emily's attic when they come across an antique sled. They soon discover that it will magically transport them to a destination of their choice, depending on which artifact they select from an old mahogany dresser in the attic.

In the first book, Beware, Pirates!, Matt and Emily ride the sled back to 1577, and end up aboard the privateer Martin Frobisher's ship in the Arctic. There, they help an Inuit boy rescue his friend, who was taken prisoner by Frobisher. In Danger, Dinosaurs!, the second book in the series, Emily's reluctance to explore the Late Cretaceous Period turns out to be well founded, as she and Matt have to contend with several dinosaur encounters--including a close call with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the third book, Crazy for Gold, the friends meet a girl named Isabel and travel with her family along the Chilkoot Pass to Dawson City, as they search for gold during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898.

Each book in the series follows a consistent format, and the adventure begins in the first few pages. Young readers will find the characters of Emily and Matt appealing because of their spirit of adventure and curiosity. Consistent in all the books, too, is the characters' realistic dialogue--the pirates, for example, give Matt "the creeps". Young readers will enjoy these books because of the non-stop adventures, but they will also learn a few facts about each place or event along the way. For example, in the first book, Matt and Emily discover what tundra and umiaks are, and discuss the fact that Iqaluit used to be called Frobisher Bay. These educational tidbits are nicely worked into the story and do not seem intentionally instructive.

Precocious 6-year olds will be captivated by these adventures, but the series seems best suited to 7--and 8-year olds. The length of the stories, type size and vocabulary are perfect for this age group. Dean Griffiths' illustrations appear every few pages--many fill a whole page--which adds interest and assists newly independent readers to understand the text. Wishinsky incorporates further historical facts at the conclusion of each story, cleverly written as though Emily and Matt were sharing their favourite facts. There is still additional information, for extremely curious youngsters, in a reader-friendly question-and-answer format.

The Canadian Flyer Adventures series is not dissimilar to the wildly popular Magic Tree House series--except here, the adventures take place in the Canadian past. Our youngest generation can learn for themselves that Canadian history is NOT boring ... and have lots of fun along the way.

Catherine Salo is a teacher-librarian in Toronto.