Raise your hand if you speak pirate? Ok. Now raise your hand if you speak cowboy? Ok. If any of ya yellow-bellied varmints out there known anything ya best be knowing how to speak both them languages if ye be wantin’ to readin’ this yer’ book. I’d be having this here a hard time gettin’ the twang down but it was sure a fun story to read. Wow, Burnt Beard and his scurvy crew “ pillaged “ (yes that is the word) the villages and got more treasure than they could bury in their typical spot so they went into Old Cheyenne. Old Cheyenne is Black Bob McKraw territory (“he’s nastier than two-week old chili and twice as gassy”) and Burnt Beard and Black Bob begin a pirate-cowboy showdown. They start off with words and since they are from different backgrounds (pirates and cowboys) they don’t understand the language each other is using. Things get heated and next thing you know, out comes the weapons. Tada!! Pegleg Highnoon to the rescue! He talks both pirate and cowboy and when he takes a whiff of them critters, he tells them “something they both could understand.” Good picture book about talking about the differences in people and compromises. I think the some of the words in the book are difficult for younger children to really know so be ready to explain (pillaged, mayhem, posse, cutlasses, etc.) The critters were cute and once you get the language down, you hearties will be findin’ you be talkin’ like pirates or cowboys for hours. On octopus named Burnt Beard the Pirate and his crew were looking for a new place to bury some treasure. (All the places along the coast were taken.) So they decide to go to Old Cheyenne where no pirates have buried treasure before. However, there in Old Cheyenne lived Black Bob McKraw (a bull) and his “gang of rip-roarin’ rustlers”. When the pirate crew and the rustlers get together in Cheyenne there are some fireworks. (Mostly because they can’t understand each other so everything they say is taken as an insult of some sort or another.) Things almost take a turn for the worse until Pegleg Highnoon (a lizard of some sort). Pegleg tells each group what the others are saying. Then he tells them all that they have something in common–they all stink. Then after a whole lot of baths they all became friends.This is a humorous tale about different groups that kids like (pirates and cowboys) coming together in an unusual way. I liked how each of the groups were very funny and couldn’t understand the pirate or the cowboy talk. Plus the illustrations have so many details that kids will spend loads of time just looking at all the different details. Kids who often have a hard time understanding others or being understood themselves will especially like how these groups finally get an interpreter to help them become friends.
What do You think about Pirates Vs. Cowboys (2013)?
I could hear the funny voices of these two bands of criminals, but the ending was meh.
—squiglybob13
Probably good for pirate and cowboys fans, but the story is a little weak.
—Jessie
