Treasure Island with Lots of Dogs

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“Fifteen bones on a dead dog’s chest / Arf-arf-arf and a bottle of
rum!” is a sample of what you are in for in this tale of pirates and
plunder pooched from the original Robert Louis Stevenson classic. The
story and characters are true to the original novel, but the plot
unfolds from a canine point of view: Jim Hawkins is just a young pup on
his first sea voyage, and Long John Silver is a three-legged cur
sporting a parrot and a peg-leg. The dog puns are numerous but not
oppressive—the author instinctively knows when to let the original
tale wag the dog.

The storyline is helped immensely by illustrator John Bianchi’s
infallible sense of the ridiculous. A “wild haired” Ben Gunn is
rendered as a long-haired collie in need of a good brushing; a pirate
skeleton pointing the way to the treasure clutches a stack of dog
biscuits to its chest. Young readers and seasoned Stevenson fans alike
will enjoy this clever parody. Highly recommended.