Review: Avital the Pirate

Avital the Pirate

by Pamela Moritz, illustrated by Damien Jones

Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House Publishers), 2024

Category: Picture Books

Reviewer: Julie Ditton

Buy at Bookshop.org

When Avital's great uncle, the Pirate Brownbeard, visits shortly before Rosh Hashanah, she joins him for an adventure. At first she has fun sharing culture with the pirates. She blow the shofar for them and they teach her some pirate songs. The author Pamela Moritz mentions kid-friendly titles of a couple of pirate standards that are sure to make older readers laugh. But when she finds out that the pirates plan to steal treasure from other people, Avital lectures her uncle that stealing is wrong. And when they run across a ship with an elderly crew, she stresses that it is a mitzvah to respect old people. She teaches the crew ways to enjoy themselves without hurting people. The cute colorful illustrations by Damien Jones show a ship full of smiling pirates having fun. The brigh, bold artwork uses a vivid palette that adds to the cheery mood. Avital even teaches the crew to clean up after themselves!
 

The story takes place right before Rosh Hashanah. With important lessons on how to live righteously, as well as some Jewish elements like shofar blowing, mitzvahs, and cooking matzah ball soup, this cute story is ideal for Jewish youngsters and can be enjoyed at any time of year.

Although primarily aimed at Jewish children, the afterward makes this book approachable to any child. The author begins with an inclusive premise by saying that we all act like pirates some of the time and could improve our behavior. This is followed by a section with some Jewish terms and includes a paragraph about Rosh Hashanah. It points out that the Jewish New Year is a time when we think about our behavior during the past year and how we might improve in the year to come. If pirates can change their ways, than anyone can improve their behavior.

I recommend this story for Jewish children at Rosh Hashanah or year round, and to any pirate loving youngster.

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Reviewer Julie Ditton posts reviews on Instagram @story.book.lady and on her Storybook Lady Facebook page. As her title would imply, her favorite genre is Children’s Literature. Most of her reviews are children’s books and about half of those have Jewish themes. She has a shelf on Goodreads specifically for Jewish Children’s Books. She also has individual shelves for each Jewish holiday. She enjoys promoting Jewish children’s literature and is an active contributor to the Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook group.