Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC, written by June Sobel and illustrated by Henry Cole.

Shiver Me Letters plays off a very cute (and wonderully geeky) joke, the pirate's fixation on the letter "R", as in "ARRRRR!". The pirate captain has decided that his crew needs to expand their horizons beyond just "R". So they lower their anchor ("A"!) at a desert island and set off seeking a buried treasure of letters.

And yes, "X" does indeed mark the spot.

Told in rhyming couplets by June Sobel, this story will have youngsters reading along as they follow the adventures of the pirate crew through the letters of the alphabet. Henry Cole has illustrated the pirates as cute cartoon animals, including a crocodile captain who wears a rubber-ducky floatation device (it even has an eyepatch!).

The illustrations are humorous and colorful, and the text is plain fun as it bounces from one location to the next, covering all of the classic pirate motifs while it moves through the alphabet. To make things even more fun, the letters of the alphabet are hidden in the illustrations, giving a nice treat for visual and artistic learners.

The ending is adorable too.

Alphabet books are great learning tools for young children, and this one has the added advantage of telling an amusing story.

This book was a birthday gift for my nephew (age 2), and it is #6 in my goal of reading and reviewing 50 books in 2008.