Ms Benitez is an incredibly lucky librarian. Not only does she work with books all day but she also gets to do it with a view of the beach. She hands out maps, by the Dread Pirate Dewey for the locals to hunt down "treasure". But one of the maps make it into the hands of Captain Jake who takes it to mean literal treasure. But instead of discovering diamonds and doubloons they discover the greater treasure of books and, erm well an organised book classification system!

This as always was read with my miniature book critic (aged 5 and 3/4 going on 23). She very much enjoyed both reading this herself and having it read to her. There are some very nice illustrations with some amusing touches. There's plenty of scope for trying out your best pirate voice (mine sounds more farmer Giles than Captain Jack) plus a nice bit of education about the wonder that is the Dewey Decimal System. It's a fun and educational story, worth a read to any budding reader.

I received a digital copy of this from Netgalley for an honest review.

Such a fun and educational book! I loved seeing the Dewey decimal system explained in the back (I've never had it explained before, so even at 22 I learned something from this book!) The story was fun and entertaining, and well as educational, teaching readers about the magic and adventures as well as the chance the learn that books offer. Funny and easy to follow!

Pirates love reading
Captain Jake was excited when a map showing where buried treasure could be found, flew into his face. He rallied his fellow pirates and accompanied by the parrot, they set off to find the treasure buried in THE LIBRARY.
The Librarian was very clever, because she had drawn a map showing where treasures could be discovered in all the different categories of the library.
I liked the story because it was funny. It had silly pirates who found lots of books to read. Even the parrot was reading.
RosieNix (with help from her granny)
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Though I love the idea of a fun book to teach kids the Dewey Decimal this book didn't cut it for me. Mixing historical pirates with a modern library was a bit confusing as there was no mention of a time machine. Then the pirates just wondered around browsing and finding books then telling us the books they were reading. There was nothing about the Dewey Decimal system except on the pirate map and a mention in the back. How can you create a book that focuses on a topic then fail to mention it? I was also a bit curious why the parrot got to read but the cat didn't?

What a clever book to be used by teachers and librarians when either introducing or reinforcing the Dewey Decimal system. I can see this book being a regular go-to for library lessons. The pirate characters are lovable get ARRRG enough for all readers. The illustrations are well done and can lead to several side conversations. Great read aloud or read it yourself.

This was a humorous little story about some pirates finding a treasure map leading them to a library, where the treasure are the books. While the pirate concept was great and the illustrations will certainly appeal to very young readers, the story was just so-so. There were some clever details, like the 'no squawking' sign which was funny, or the repetition of 'the captain, his crew and the parrot too', which always appeals to little children. But at the end, the story-telling felt uninspired and I wondered if this could have worked just as well (or better) as a pure picture book without words.

At the end a listing of the Dewey system is added, but I wonder who is the target group for that? Surely not the little toddlers who will be delighted by the colorful pictures and the very simple story?! So what about the Moms (or Dads) who will most likely read those stories? I guess they could gain some knowledge from the list, but will it help them in the children's section of the library? I don't think so - the system doesn't even have an entry for children's literature, much less any subcategories for children's literature, such as picture books, first readers, non-fiction, or subjects like adventure, friendship, animals an so on.

Conclusion: the book has beautiful pictures with funny details to explore, but could do without the text. However, as the target group can't read by themselves yet, it is easy to completely omit or at least pep up the written story.

This title introduces the Dewey Decimal System as a treasure map, which blows out of the library and is found by real pirates. They promptly visit the library to find the treasure. The adventure touches on appropriate library behavior, and the great variety of books you can find in the library, and that books are borrowed but not kept forever. Oddly enough, the story doesn't mention the Dewey Decimal system, other than it is represented on the treasure map as a compass rose. It is explained in the back matter in detail. The story itself is amusing and would serve as a good introduction to the library. Be sure to read it through first before reading it aloud to a group - there is one page where the Captain wants to take all the books and the librarian is explaining that books must be borrowed and returned, but the way the text and pictures are laid out, it is not obvious which text block should be read first. The bottom left text should come before the upper right hand text, and that isn't extremely obvious until you read it. Overall, it would be a good choice to introduce young students to the library.

A wonderful library read aloud! I look forward to sharing “Pirates in the Library” during story time and using a fun Pirate voice for the captain!

'Pirates in the Library' by Nadia Ali with art by Jake Tebbits is a fun book for young readers. It includes a treasure map to finding great books in the library.

When Ms. Benitez starts a new reading program by creating a treasure map for the kids, one inadvertently finds its way into the hands of pirates on the sea. Seizing any opportunity to find treasure, the pirates invade the local library. The librarian has posted a "No Squawking" sign so the pirates have to keep their parrot silent. The pirates learn that the compass rose on the map is actually a decoder for the Dewey Decimal System. The pirates find a different kind of treasure than they thought they would, but each of them finds something unique to their interests.

I liked the clever idea of incorporating the Dewey Decimal System into the compass rose of the treasure map. It's on the end papers of the book. There is also an appendix which expands the system out a bit more, so you can learn that Science and Math is 500, but Stars, Planets, Astronomy, Space is 520. It's a clever way to teach kids how to find treasure at their local library.

My review copy had a number of formatting errors in the text, where letters were missing from words, but I'm hoping that gets corrected for the final version.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Star Bright Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

What happens when pirates find a treasure map that points to the library as having treasure? Well, there's a lot of explaining by the librarian for one!
The lesson learned is the expected one (books are treasures). There are a lot of words for a kids book. It reminded me a little of the Polar Express, might be a longer read-aloud. An interesting book and obviously a labor of love by some librarian.

This is a fun book, easy to follow and has some lovely images. Can definitely see this one being a firm favourite that gets read over and over - 4 stars from me.