The Jolly Regina

I continue my quest for middle grade novels that I love to read to Tesfa as much as Tesfa loves having them read to her.

So here we have a book of female pirates, who kidnap the Bland Sisters, to take them on their pirating adventures. The writing is full of quirk and cleverness and sort of nonsensicalness that recalls Pooh and Piglet's conversations.

"...And then we can swim until we find land. There must be land
within swimming distance, in some direction.”

“There’s one problem,” said Jaundice.

“What’s that?” asked Kale.

“We don’t know how to swim,” said Jaundice.

“Excellent point,” said Kale.

And, as one sees above, the sisters are named Jaundice and Kale, which I appreciate, having once told Tesfa she had two show more imaginary sisters named Strawberry and Pumpernickel who lived in our back shed. And Tesfa was happy, asking, as we ended the book the two questions that always mean she enjoyed the story (Is this our book? as opposed to the library's, which means she can read it whenever she wants; and Is there going to be a sequel? so she can read more set in this world.)

I love middle grade novels. I love clever writing. I love girl power stories. But then The Jolly Regina has a whole vexing bullying subplot that made me uncomfortable. I had a Feeling as the Bland Sisters would say. I'm not great with bullying subplots, or people being mean to other people, or shunning subplots, to begin with (for example, Harriet the Spy upset me quite a bit and I'm not reading it to Tesfa ever), and I'm never happy with platitudes like "they bully you because you're special" or getting back at bullies by being mean to them in turn. Plus the fat-shaming that started the whole bullying in the first place makes me a sad panda. Additionally, why can't people be fat without having to be all I'm going to eat well and exercise as a resolution to their story? Sure the message -- don't be mean to people, exercise and healthy eating are A-Okay -- is fine, but as sound as the message is, the presentation is problematic and sloppy. It soured the whole experience for me, and, clearly striking a nerve, I can't get past it to focus on anything else that happened in the story. My mind is stuck there.

I still feel uncomfortable thinking about it. I guess that says more about me than about The Jolly Regina.

The Jolly Regina by Kara LaReau went on sale January 10, 2017.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

This is a cute kids' book about two sisters who are content in their boring existence (even if they do wonder what happened to their parents), until they are kidnapped by a crew of female pirates. It's fun and amusing, with some charming illustrations, and while it's clearly aimed at kids, there are a few jokes in here for us older folks, too. (For instance, there's a pirate named Captain Ann Tennille. I do not expect there are many children who will get that reference, but I laughed out loud.)

The one thing I'm not thrilled about is the part of the adventure involving the fat pirate cook. Come on, can't we have a story about women that doesn't involve harping on their weight? Or giving kids the impression that all one needs to stop show more being fat is a better attitude? Because there is a bit of that here, and I look askance at it.

That aside, though, it's enjoyable, playful, and pleasant.

Rating: I'm almost tempted to dock it half a point for the fat pirate thing. But I'll give it a 4/5, anyway. show less

A nice little package! Like the Series of Unfortunate Events, this book is not as easy as it looks, and between the pirate slang and the old fashioned vocabulary, it might work best as a read aloud. But for precocious young readers, it tells a good yarn with humor, heart, and a touch of feminism. And the pirates illustrations reminded me of Kate Beaton!

Before reading this book, I read the back, and I was so excited to start this book. While reading, I was a little letdown. It was a very interesting book with a great storyline. The sisters were exposed to adventure and left their normal life to find their parents. There were little illustrations on some pages which were cute and followed the story. However, the pirate language made the story a little difficult to understand, and I don't think it would go well for children. On every new chapter page, there was a definition that would be used in the chapter. I did like that because it exposes the book to new vocabulary. Towards the end of the book, the girls found clues as to where their parents may be, but they did not find them. The show more end of the book was a happy ending that leaves the reader interested in the next book in the series. show less

Mentioned in a blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2020/07/20/chapter-books-whats-good/ (July 20th release)