Books like Edward and the Pirates

Edward, the young boy who helped Santa in author/illustrator David McPhail's holiday picture-book, \ Santa's Book of Names\ , returns in this second adventure. Now a more accomplished reader, Edward enjoys texts of all kinds, from the cereal box to the community monument. He especially likes to read the many books he takes out of the library. When he falls asleep with his latest - "Lost Pirate Treasure" - he has a fantastical dream involving a band of pirates demanding the book, and his mother (as Joan of Arc) and father (as Robin Hood) coming to his rescue... As a book-lover who haunted my local library as a child, I took Edward and the Pirates completely to heart! I appreciated the way that the stories Edward reads come alive for him, and the way he puts himself into each narrative, participating through imaginative play. I also greatly enjoyed the artwork, which is a little dark in tone at first, but which also has a lovely luminous quality to it. I haven't read the earlier book about Edward, as I was unaware when I picked this one up that it was part of a series. That said, given how much I enjoyed this one, I would definitely like to track it down. Recommended to young book and story lovers, and to anyone looking for picture-books about the magic of reading.