Six stars and more!

You can't help but smile as you read this tale. Parents shouting out things to their daughter, such as come away from the water, Shirley yet not paying attention to what she is doing. And what she is doing is such fun!

I don't get this book. We will study it in my picture book class and maybe it will make more sense then, but for now, neither myself nor my daughter have any idea what's going on. It seems that a mother, father, and daughter have gone to the beach. On one side of the two-page spread, the parents are pictured giving idle warnings to their daughter. On the other side, the daughter is off fighting pirates and finding buried treasure. Either this book is a fantasy and she actually went off in a boat and fought pirates, or she's imagining the whole thing (which I think is more likely). This book, like Rosie's Walk, has a different story in the words than the pictures portray. It is also like Where the Wild Things Are in the way Shirley's imagination takes over. It's an interesting book but not one of my favorites. Maybe it will be more fun once I learn about it in class.

Hmm don't know what to say of this book. The whole book is about a nagging dad. Nothing seems to be good what the girl does. Didn't like the drawings, they could have been better. There are better books for kids out there.

I love how the text and the illustrations in this book tell totally different stories. The adventures that Shirley has with pirates in her imagination are really exciting compared to the day her parents have at the beach. This is conveyed through very different styles of illustration: Shirley's parents are depicted in pale colours with little detail where as Shirley's adventures are show in bright colours and great detail.

I don't get it, is it just me or this story simply put down to neglectful parents? Awful book!

This is a really clever book that tells one story through the words and another one with the pictures, as they reveal something bigger. Shirley and her parents go to the seaside and Shirley is left on her own to play. Her parents talk to her, telling her not to do things, but Shirley (in the pictures) is in an imaginary world of her own having wonderful adventures battling pirates etc.

This would be great to discuss the counterpoint between the two stories with the children, looking at the author’s choice of language for the parents and the illustrations of Shirley. They could write their own descriptions/ words for each of the pictures to match Shirley’s adventures and compare this to the original. This would highlight Burningham’s craft in a way the children could understand.

My full review here.