Heath McKenzie's Australian Twelve Days of Christmas was a bestseller and he collaborates with Caroline Stills to produce a brilliant, witty,original ABC of Pirates. The zany illustrations are full of humorous subtexts and sly humour. The Dickensian young pirates are funnily fearsome, wielding swords, spatulas,electric drills and even electric eels. Each page is a riotous complement to the buccaneering verse.  Caroline Stills manages to produce rhyming stanzas that aren't contrived, read aloud fluidly and challenge your pirate vocabulary.  If you want to keep the little pirates busy turn to the back of the book where two hundred items are alphabetically listed to find . Pour yourself a tot of rum and relax until they demand you read it again….and again