Whatever You Do, Don't Go Near that Canoe!

Ted McGee is an associate professor of English at St. Jerome’s
College, University of Waterloo.

This superb picture book is essentially a fantasy, a close encounter of
the piratical kind prompted by the tongue-in-cheek proscription
registered in the title. Julie Lawson handles her rhyming quatrains with
ease and builds into the exaggerated threats of the pirates intimations
of the happy ending for the narrator (a little girl), her younger
brother, and O’Malley, her stuffed kangaroo. Werner Zimmermann’s
illustrations are brightly colored, emotionally sharp, and rich in
atmosphere. Full of humor both verbal and visual, this picture book will
bear many rereadings. Highly recommended.