Jeremy Strong’s very silly Pirate School story for 5 year olds, about a stray dog smuggled on board a school ship, is called Where’s That Dog?<\/p>\n
Patagonia Clatterbottom is the head teacher, and she’s a real scary-pants. She has a ginger wig, a wooden leg, big grabby hands and a mini pirate ship on wheels, cannons and all. Her best subject is Shouting.<\/p>\n
One morning the postman turns up with a very important letter and a stray dog stuck to his leg. Patagonia won’t have dogs on her ship. So the children hide her, and call her Jazz.<\/p>\n
The letter’s bad news too. Two inspectors are coming, and if Pirate School gets a bad mark it’ll be closed down.<\/p>\n
The inspectors are brilliant. Miss Piefinger is as big as a rhinoceros and wears an eyepatch with a hole cut in it so she can see out. Mr Crankle has a face like a toad and spare wooden legs that he throws like boomerangs.<\/p>\n
Every lesson goes wrong. Smudge swings off a rope and knocks Mr Crankle overboard. Little Flo twirls her way out of sword practice. The gangplank turns into a trampoline.<\/p>\n
And every time Jazz barks, one of the children says “Ruff!” and claims it was them (nobody believes them for a second).<\/p>\n
Will the school survive the inspection? And where IS that dog?<\/p>\n
This is a LOUD one to read aloud. Wheeeee, splosh! Boyoiinngg! Your reader will be joining in with the noises by the second chapter.<\/p>\n
The grown-ups are all ridiculous, and the children run rings round them, which is exactly what a young reader wants from a story. Marks out of ten for every lesson so far? None.<\/p>\n
There’s a sweet moment too. Jazz creeps into Patagonia’s bed the night before the big test and licks her face, and the fiercest head teacher in the world falls asleep with a tiny smile.<\/p>\n
Nothing here is frightening. There’s a sea chase with cannon fire in it, but it’s pure pantomime from start to finish.<\/p>\n
If they love this crew, go back to where it all started. Just a Bit of Wind is the children’s very first day at Pirate School, with Patagonia insisting that a gathering storm is nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeremy Strong’s very silly Pirate School story for 5 year olds, about a stray dog smuggled on board a school ship, is called Where’s That Dog? Patagonia Clatterbottom is the head teacher, and she’s a real scary-pants. She has a ginger wig, a wooden leg, big grabby hands and a mini pirate ship on wheels, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13970,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8410,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Just a Bit of Wind","lr_seo_hook":"A stray dog, two terrible inspectors and a pirate school that must not fail.","lr_series_id":138,"lr_series_name":"Pirate School","lr_series_position":3,"lr_series_label":""},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[21],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[463],"class_list":["post-13971","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-5-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-jeremy-strong"],"yoast_title":"Pirate School – Where’s That Dog? by Jeremy Strong | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A stray dog, two terrible inspectors and a pirate school that must not fail. For ages 5+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n