Sheila McCullaghCritiques

QIAIUR58

A classic!

For many people, it would be impossible to separate Mary Gernat's distinctive sketchy illustrations from Sheila McCullagh's engaging stories. I learned to read with these books and they will always have a place in my deepest memories.

On the Island is the eighth book in the Griffin Pirate Stories series and brings together Ben the Blue pirate, Roderick the Red, Greg the Green and the Griffin-of-the-Rock in an adventure where they have to work together to get off the island.

This review is for the Thomas Nelson (1993) re-issue of this book.

I recently happened across a copy of, what (on the surface) appeared to be a vintage issue of this book. Near identical to the original published some thirty five years previously - now more than fifty years ago!

What this is, in actual fact, is a Chinese copy; but, done so well that I would be more than happy to own a complete set of these fine reproductions myself.
It's like owning a mint condition copy of a book from the 1960's - something quite rare to find; even down to the canvas textured cover.
It is clearly a re-issue rather than a pirate copy as evident from the publishing data on the inside cover and the addition of a printed barcode on the back (which would not have existed on the original); but, I have to say 'what a lovely product'.

The story:

After sailing away from the island of the Mer-people, Benjamin encounters a fierce storm during the night, and in the midst of all the turmoil looses his bag containing the candle, the mirror and the flute. Without them he can not see in the dark, know the way; nor, worst of all, ever call the Griffin again!

This is a story I vividly recall reading as a child at junior school. I had trouble reading, and these books helped me gain a lot of confidence. I therefore have fond memories of the whole series.

Every day, every hour, the iron boy struck the bell with his silver hammer. At one o'clock, he struck it once, at two o'clock, he struck it twice, and so on. One night, though, at midnight, he struck the bell thirteen times. And suddenly, he was free. He wanted to be alive, so the magician who owned the house with the bell, where he'd stood for so many years, sent him to the Country of Zorn, in which he could find the Silver River. If he bathed in the Silver River, he would become alive.

When the Clock Struck Thirteen by Sheila McCullagh is a children's picture book, designed to teach young children to read. On the left-hand pages are longer sentences with more complicated words, intended for parents to read, while the right-hand pages contain shorter, simpler sentences, intended for children to read. Eventually, the children can be expected to read the entire book, themselves.

The idea of a book that is designed to be read collaboratively by parent and child seems like a good one, to me, and this book seems a good example of it. The part of the story on the left-hand pages is just a bit more difficult to read than the part on the right hand pages, providing a gentle step up in difficulty for children learning to read.

The story is continued and concluded in the remaining four book in Stage 4 of the Puddle Lane reading program, which, sadly, I do not own. The story in this one is quite incomplete, ending just as the boy leaves the magician for the Country of Zorn. Perhaps I'll acquire the others someday, so I can see how it ends.

I'd recommend When the Clock Struck Thirteen to parents looking for something to read with their children, and if this book is any indication of the quality of the other books in the series, then they would be well worth acquiring, as well.

The Griffin Pirate saga continues...

Following The Storm in book 5, during which both Greg the green and Roderick the red's ships both went down, only Benjamin the blue's ship remains in one piece - although it is beached on the sand.
All three pirates find themselves on the same island and Ben feels that they should all "see what they can do about it".
Not much else happens to progress the story very far in this episode, but it is an interesting book because it tackles some very complex social behaviours: Roderick Is obviously a very strong pirate and Ben needs his help especially; so, both he and Greg cooperate in assisting Roderick to his feet and politely making sure that he is alright, even though he is obviously a bad tempered bully. But then, when Roderick turns on poor neurotic Greg and repeatedly hits him on the head in order to get him to divulge the location of his treasure, Ben does very little to help his friend but opts to stay out of the affair.

As a child I remember feeling confused over Ben's apathy. Up to that point I'd understood that a hero always stood up against injustice and protected the powerless. Ben didn't stand up for his friend Greg; in fact when questioned by Roderick as to Greg's General mental confusion all Ben answers is that "He has always been like that" and then even shares some information with Roderick about Greg’s compulsive habit of hording jewels.
Did this mean that Ben was switching sides, dropping helpless Greg and aligning himself with the stronger bully just because he was potentially more useful as an ally?

On the last page it seems Ben does none if these and sighs unhappily at the situation before walking away. Would Superman have done that?
At the time I remember feeling disillusioned that these individuals were not heroic, but just rouges after all. It also enforced the notion that you can't always rely on your friends.

It is surreal to think that all these things crossed my mind nearly forty years ago now, but I still remember much of my feelings towards these books.
I don't recall everything that happened. I remember liking the Griffin in book 7, and recall something about the Mer-People, and the Black Pirates. I must have read the whole series countless times during my primary school years.
Ben was still my hero although I empathised a lot with Greg.

The original illustrations by Mary Gernat have not to this day been surpassed in quality.

This gradeschool reader features a cute story, with pirates, and of course mer-people. The illustrations however are of poor quality. They feel rushed, scribbly, as if made "just for some kids book".½