Maggie and the Pirate by Ezra Jack Keats

Genre: General fiction

Publishing information: Scholastic, INC 34 pages

Summary: This is the story of Maggie who lives in a tropical place and has a pet cricket named Niki. The little girl leaves Niki in his cage while she goes to the store for her mother. While Maggie is gone a pirate comes and steals Niki. Maggie and her friends go out searching for the pirate and the cricket. Maggie finds the pirate in a tree house that she has never seen before. The two of them scuffle over the cricket and the tree house falls into the water. Niki drowns in the water and the children bury him. The pirate who turns out to be the new kid in town comes to return the cage along with a new cricket.


Personal rating: *** Good. This is an interesting story with beautiful pictures. Children will enjoy this story because it has adventure even though it touches on grief.


Reading level: 2.5


Interest level: k-2


Integration: This book could be used to discuss grief and death. The teacher could have the students discuss how everyone in this book feels. The little girl feels sad and the pirate feels ashamed at what he has caused. The friends show sadness but they didn't understand what made the pet cricket so important to Maggie.
This book could also be used to talk about bullies and stealing. The pirate should not have taked Maggie's cricket and his cage. The teacher could discuss how that made Maggie feel and how it made the pirate feel.


Potential problems: The problem that I see with this book is the fact that the pirate is a bully and steals the pet cricket. The little boy does learn his lesson because he ends up doing harm to the cricket. This book brings up the topic of death and grief which will need to be discussed after reading.