A good children’s picture book is like beauty: it’s success is often in the eye of the beholder. With so many lovely books for young children rolling off the presses all the time, it’s tough to choose just one or two. One thing is clear: in a market that gets increasingly tougher, the very best of the bunch tend to be excellent all around, possessing all of the elements that make a book good, no matter who is beholding it.

Matthew McElligott’s latest is a terrific example. Backbeard and the Birthday Suit really does have it all. First of all — and to my mind, this is tremendously important in a children’s book — the illustrations are simply brilliant. McElligott’s style here is strong and assured. More: his technique is interesting, well thought out and executed. It appears that McElligott has combined traditional illustration techniques with photo-based backgrounds and textures. A lot of illustrators could not have pulled this off — at least certainly not so well — but McElligott manages it beautifully.”

Second — and no less important — the story here really works. Better still: it works on several levels. We meet Backbeard, “the hairiest pirate ever. Backbeard was so hairy, it was sometimes tough to tell if there was a pirate underneath.”

Not only is Backbeard hairy, he’s stinky, loud and just generally not that pleasant to be around. I mean, he’s so hairy, stinky and loud that even his parrots generally quit after just a few days. Waking up after a particularly exuberant birthday party, Backbeard decides enough is enough and leaves the comfort of his pirate ship in order to go shopping in town.

At a fashionable shop, he ends up in a very unpiratey suit, complete with boater hat, monocle and a pig for a mascot instead of a parrot. When he gets back to his ship, he is so unrecognizable to his crew that they attack him. Finally, after much kerfuffle, they realize their mistake and accept him as their captain.

Except, of course, with McElligott’s snappy prose and wonderful illustrations, the journey is a lot more fun. There’s even a mild yet meaningful positive message or two: 1. Clothes don’t make the man (or child or pirate, for that matter) and 2. Your friends (or your crew) will like you no matter what you wear, the important thing is to pick things that you feel good in.

There’s still more to like in Backbeard and the Birthday Suit. The typography here is clear and easy to read, which is important in a book meant to be read aloud. The book itself is beautifully designed and even text-only pages that would usually not sport an illustration feature delicately wrought sepia toned copy warmers by the author.

The result of all of this care and talent is a book that just snaps: it’s flawless and fun and highly recommended for young readers and pre-readers.

McElligott is also the author of Absolutely Not and The Spooky Book as well as several others. | April 2006

Monica Stark is a freelance writer and editor.

Press Register: Backbeard, “the hairiest pirate who ever lived,” must retire his torn and tattered suit. He falls prey to a sales clerk’s idea of what constitutes a fashionable pirate ensemble. Backbeard’s crew, who at first don’t recognize him, assure him that clothes don’t make the pirate, as they take in his new look of a straw boater, boldly printed pink jacket and green-striped pants. A bit garish and ridiculous for the high seas, but Backbeard challenges anyone to say such.

McElligott proves masterful with his lyrical pirate lingo, quite silly and musical. He also takes pirate stereotypes and twists them to the point of ludicrous characterizations, such as a pig that rides on Backbeard’s shoulder instead of a parrot. The young readers at my house guffawed loudly from start to finish. Ages 5-9. –Monica Anderson Young, Mobile Press-Register

Shiver me timbers, it’s pirate time again!

Columbia Tribune: Ahoy, mates! Looking for a good pirate adventure? With “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” coming out this week, what better way to really get into the mood than to read about pirates?

“Backbeard and the Birthday Suit: The Hairiest Pirate Who Ever Lived,” written and illustrated by Matthew McElligott, makes the average mean old pirate look especially crusty. That’s because Backbeard, who is drawn with hair everywhere, is so ugly and smelly that you can almost sense the stink from the book’s pages. It is his birthday, and as his crew yells rude remarks about his appearance, he suddenly takes heed and heads off his ship to a clothing shop to find something that doesn’t have holes or smell. He’s also looking for a parrot that won’t leave him because he smells. The shopkeeper assures him that he has just the right clothing for him.

How he is dressed, and the animal a shopkeeper places on Backbeard’s shoulder, will surely have your youngster smiling all the way to the end!

By HOLLY E. NEWTON, Columbia Daily Tribune
Published Thursday, May 24, 2007

Backbeard is the hairiest pirate who ever lived. He’s also the most unsanitary, which makes it hard for him to keep a parrot. When the crew of the Five O’Clock Shadow throws Captain Backbeard a birthday party (which, incidentally, is an unmistakably great success because the crew members scratch, spit and hit each other with bottles before being tossed overboard by their captain), Backbeard reviews his wardrobe and decides it’s time for a change. Enter the birthday suit.

No, it’s not that kind of suit. This is a children’s book—even if it’s a hugely entertaining read for adults as well.

Backbeard goes ashore and visits a tailor with an appalling lack of proper pirate clothing in stock. The intrepid tailor convinces Backbeard to change his look and to adopt a new shoulder-riding mascot. When the pirate captain returns to his ship, his crew ridicules him, tries to drive him off the ship, and in general gives him a hard time. The pirate Backbeard isn’t feared across the seas for nothing, and he holds his own. Finally, someone throws an egg at Backbeard’s hat, a true sign of affection aboard the Five O’Clock Shadow: “I love you guys,” says Backbeard.

Backbeard and the Birthday Suit is one of those delightful children’s books that does what literature was meant to do once upon a time: It instructs as it entertains. In this case, children get a little lesson in standing up for their own ideas, be they on personal fashion style, on choice of friends (or mascots), on how to run a pirate ship, or on how to be the best (and hairiest) pirate that ever sailed the Seven Seas. Author/illustrator Matthew McElligott, who describes himself as (like Backbeard), “big, messy, smelly, and not too bright,” has created a delightful hero and crew—Mad Jack Garlic, Sweaty McGhee, Scarlet Doubloon and the rest. A follow-up volume, Backbeard: Pirate for Hire (2007)—is equally charming and clever. The illustrations are filled with little details to be discovered on first, second and subsequent readings, and the pirates are silly enough to offset any scary features. In fact, the scariest thing about these two books may be how many times parents find themselves asking their children if they want to read Backbeard again before bed. (Link)