Spike the pup’s story begins at a busy shipyard. But, unlike most dog tales, Spike’s tale starts with his nose. – opening line of Stinky Spike the Pirate Dog by Peter Meisel
Spike the pirate dog has the best nose in the whole world! He can smell treasure from miles away, and that comes in handy when you are a pirate!
Spike goes on a few adventures with his pirate crew. Every character is silly, and their adventures are pretty silly, too. Thanks to the full color illustrations on every page, we could all see exactly how silly every character was – the pirate with a beard full of fish and the princess were highlights for my kids!
Check out the review below to find out what I liked and didn’t like about the book, what ages it would be good for, and anything questionable that you need to know about before picking this series up.
Make sure to scroll down to read the Special Considerations section so that you aren’t blindsided by something in the book that might be a touchy subject for some families.
Title: Stinky Spike the Pirate Dog
Author: Peter Meisel
Illustrator: Paul Meisel
Details: Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2017
Number of Pages: 80 pages
Number of Chapters: 3 chapters
Average Chapter Length: 26 pages
Picture Frequency: full color illustrations on every page
Title: Stinky Spike and the Royal Rescue
Author: Peter Meisel
Illustrator: Paul Meisel
Details: Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2017
Number of Pages: 71 pages
Number of Chapters: 3 chapters
Average Chapter Length: 23 pages
Picture Frequency: full color illustrations on every page
The Good: These are silly stories about silly pirates. The fast paced storyline and funny premise kept us all entertained.
The pictures in the book are awesome, and add a lot to the story. There are A LOT of pictures, too.
The Bad: The story is absurd. Everything in it is silly, from the names to the storyline. My kids and I loved it, but if you aren’t in to that, you might not like it.
Special Considerations: The pirates aren’t good pirates. I don’t mean they aren’t good at being pirates, (although…now that I think of it…) I mean they literally are BAD. They aren’t robbing the rich to give to the poor, they’re robbing everyone to get richer themselves.
My Thoughts: This series has easy to follow storylines, many illustrations, and interesting characters. It is also very short. I recommend it for any age – both my toddler and kindergartner enjoyed it and could sit for more than one chapter at a time.
Overall, I’m glad we checked it out from the library, but it isn’t a series I’ll be rushing to purchase for my children’s bookshelves. This is mainly because of the lack of moral lessons of really any type – these are marshmallow books. There’s nothing wrong with a little fluffy, sweet marshmallow every once in awhile, but it’s not something I want on my kids shelves for the rest of their lives. However, if you need a little something silly in your life, this should definitely be what you pick up for your next read aloud series!
