View source for Sadie and the Sea Dogs by Maureen Duffy and Anita Joice

{{infobox1
|title=Sadie and the Sea Dogs
|author=Maureen Duffy and Anita Joice
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=A rip-roaring story of a young girl's adventure when she falls asleep in a museum.  A great story but it's not the easiest to read aloud to a group of children - which is a pity.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=48
|publisher=Hikari Press
|date=April 2021
|isbn=978-0995647893
|cover=0995647895
|aznuk=0995647895
|aznus=0995647895
}}
Sadie's mother always said that she was a dreamer, her mind never on what she should be doing.  She lives by the River Thames at Greenwich and she loves to spend hours at The Maritime Museum or gazing at Cutty Sark.

''Her class had gone one rainy afternoon''<br>
''When all the houses cowered in the gloom,''<br>
''To the Maritime Museum''. 
 
Her imagination was fired.  She'd love to sail the oceans on an ancient sailing ship and went back regularly.  One day she fell asleep under a glass case (it's the one where Nelson's Trafalgar breeches are on show) and missed the closing bell and the attendant's warning shout.  When she woke (hard floors don't make comfy beds) she was in the midst of an adventure that she could never have imagined in a world of dolphins, pirates, mermaids and treasure.

It's a rip-roaring story.  Boys shouldn't be put off because the central character is a girl: Sadie's not a girly girl, she's a dungarees and sneakers person and you get the feeling that it wouldn't be wise to mess with her.  There's plenty of history in the book but it's served up with a light touch: you don't feel that you've been ''educated'' - you've been ''entertained''.

Anita Joice's illustrations are brilliant: they're rich and there's plenty to see.  The colours are warm and you feel yourself being drawn into the story.  She ''loves to create doorways to other worlds through paintings'' and she's achieved that superbly in ''Sadie and the Sea Dogs''.  Amazingly, she's self-taught!

I was hoping to read this book aloud to children but my attempts weren't particularly satisfactory.  There are some gorgeous phrases:

''Where rigging sang<br>
''and white winged sails unfurled.'' or

''Day faded and the moon rose high.''<br>
''They seemed to be sailing homeward through the sky.''

The words paint their own pictures.  But sometimes, just sometimes, the metre doesn't feel comfortable when you read aloud.  This is the text on the first page:

''To put to sea and voyage far away''<br>
''Through ice-green waters where the great whales play''<br>
''Was Sadie's dream.  She lived beside the Thames'' <br>
''At Greenwich where the water bus route ends''

I found too that some rhymes such as ''gloom/museum'' are ugly unless you distort one of the words.  It's a book which is perhaps better ''read'' than ''spoken'', which is a pity.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

If you would like a narrative poem with wonderful illustrations, we can recommend [[The Hawk of the Castle: A Story of Medieval Falconry by Danna Smith and Bagram Ibatoulline]].

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[[Category:Maureen Duffy]] [[Category:Anita Joice]] [[Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse]]