When Pirates Came to Brooklyn - Hardcover

Phyllis Shalant teaches writing to both children and adults and has written a number of books for young readers.

Gr. 4-7. Lee feels like the Rapunzel of Brooklyn, although she is stuck in a fourth-floor apartment instead of a tower. Her best friend, wheelchair-bound by polio, has moved to Florida; Eddie, the misfit new boy in sixth grade, keeps harassing her; and her mom doesn't want her to associate with schwartzer (blacks) or goyim (non-Jews). When Lee is invited to play at Polly Burke's big house, she is immediately drawn into pretend games of shipwrecks, a poisoned tea party, and flying lessons. When Lee and Polly plot to help Peter Pan fight pirates coming by cloud-ship galleon, fantasy fringes on reality. It seems that pirates aren't the only threat in Brooklyn in 1960: the bias and bigotry of the girls' mothers--each staunch in her religious convictions--works to break apart the children's friendship. Lee's voice is that of a young girl caught between believing in the fantastical and learning the realities of prejudice. The conflict forces her to ask what it means to be Jewish and question whether Jews go to heaven or hell or, maybe, Neverland. Place and time are exceptionally well defined in this perceptive story that tackles an age-old dilemma for children: Are parents always right? Today's readers may not understand why Lee, at 11, can still believe in fairy tales and invisible things, but they will relate to her courage to question the world around her. Julie Cummins
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