David Barneda

Burnt Beard the pirate and his crew were looking for a new place to put their treasure. When Burnt Beard the pirate saw a place called Old Cheyenne, he thought it would be the best place. Black Bob Mc Kraw, the leader of the cowboys, saw Burnt Beard and his crew come into town he didn't like that. Black Bob McKraw and Burnt Beard had some words to say to each other. Then the pirates and the cowboys were having a showdown. Either one could understand what the other was saying to the other. Pegleg Highnoon shows up, he is the only pirate cowboy. Pegleg Highnoon tells both the pirates and cowboys that they smell. After that the piartes and cowboys bathe and get along with one another. Books show readers that people do not have the same interest but it doesn't mean that one person is better. Books also show readers that differences can be solved. I learned from this book that back then they had many differences between people and that it could be solved either in a good way or in a very bad way. I also learned that it can take a person to help people who have differences from each other and come to a conclusion. This book was set back in the old west days, so back then in those days they settled their problems with starting violence.… (meer)

Pirates vs. Cowboys was a silly book that children would really enjoy reading. The two main characters, an octopus who is a pirate and a bull who is a cowboy, have an altercation because they cannot understand each other. Since the octopus speaks pirate and the bull speaks cowboy, they do not understand what the other is saying. In the end, an alligator who speaks both pirate and cowboy tells them that they both smell really bad and the altercation ends because they realize that they actually have something in common with each other. In my opinion, I liked this book because while it was funny and silly, it had a hidden message which children could really apply to their own lives. The message is that even though someone may be different than you, you probably still have something in common so you shouldn't hate them. I also enjoyed the illustrations. THey were action packed which made the book easy to follow. It created a movie in my head, which I know would definitely happen for children too.… (meer)

I liked this book for a variety of reasons. First, I loved the language and word choice of this book. It uses words like "rip-roarin'", "swaggered", "scallywags", hornswogglers", etc. These are words that most young readers don'y come across too often so this book is great for expanding a child's vocabulary and getting them to think about what these certain words mean. The second part of the book that I think was my favorite feature was the use of similes throughout the text. I think similes like, "nastier than week-old chili" or "worse than three-day-old sunbaked shark bait" add for a a very funny and comical feel to the story. The story line of the book was good as it starts with pirates coming into the cowboy's town to take over. Both sides think they're very different and are about to fight when a character named Pegleg Highnoon who is half pirate, half cowboy stops them and tells them how bad they smell. The awful smell of the two enemies is something that the two can agree upon and is what brings them together in friendship. It's a story that most young readers will be able to follow but the illustration and text on the pages gets a little confusing at times. On a lot of the pages the text and illustrations are scattered in ways that make it hard to figure out what sentence to read next. I think this could cause for some confusion and affect flow of the story. Overall, the message of the story is a good for children because it teaches them that no matter how different you are from someone else, there is always something that can be agreed upon.… (meer)