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Pirate and the Penguin is a modern take on Mark Twain's classic, "The Prince and the Pauper" written and illustrated by the talented Patricia Storms. Patricia's quirky humor and comical illustrative style are the perfect pairing to bring this parable of finding contentment to life for the children of today.
I asked Patricia if she would share how this story came to be and happily she indulged me. I know you will enjoy reading it as much as I did. She told me to edit to fit our needs but I couldn't. I wanted you to "hear" her voice . She's such a hoot! Thanks, Patricia!
(Be sure and leave a comment to be entered to win this fun and delightful book in our drawing.)
I'm not entirely certain of the timeline, but I think it was around 2006 that I first got the kernel of the idea for The Pirate and the Penguin. I was sitting in a café in Toronto with my friend Liam O’Donnell, who is a very talented author of numerous graphic novels. By this point in my career I had illustrated a few books – some humour, some children’s, but what I really wanted to do was write and illustrate my own picture book. So I was drinking coffee and kvetching with Liam about how hard it was to break into the children’s writing market. “If someone really wanted to create a popular picture book,” I snarled, “then they would write a story with a pirate and a penguin in it.” Liam thought it was a great idea, and told me that I should write that story. It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment to write a story with those two popular icons – I was just making a flippant comment. But the words ‘pirate and penguin’ had such an appealing sound, and I just couldn’t get it out of my head.
Over the next few weeks I dithered and dallied, but eventually got the idea of writing a story loosely based on Mark Twain’s ‘The Prince and the Pauper’. Pirate and penguin, prince and pauper – see the connection? Well, at least the alliteration was the same. Now I know that the concept of characters who
5 Comments on The Pirate and the Penguin, last added: 12/20/2011
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This book is too cute. Has my princesses two favorite things pirates and penguins. :)
I'm so glad you didn't shorten this! Great story!! And inspiring!
Great interview! Enjoyed that Roz....thanks for not editing :)
The illustrations are super-cute!
My nephews would love this book! It looks adorable. river26[at]gmail[dot]com