QC Preflight Point QC Preflight Point 3rd 0 0 NEIL GAIMAN Pirate Stew! Pirate Stew! ILLUSTRATED BY NEIL GAIMAN Meet Long John McRon Pirate Stew for me and you! CHRIS RIDDELL has written highly acclaimed books for both Ship’s Cook . children and adults and is the first author to Pirate Stew! Pirate Stew! A most unlikely babysitter . . . have won both the Carnegie and Newbery Eat it and you won’t be blue. Medals for the same work – . You can be a pirate too! Long John McRon and his wild crew are Many of his books, including and about to transform a perfectly ordinary Stardust, have been made into films; A joyful, funny feast of a story, with all evening into a riotous adventure has been adapted for TV and radio, the ingredients of a book you’ll read beneath a pirate moon – with the help and American Gods and Good Omens have been and love forever. adapted into major TV series. He has also of a very unusual recipe. From Carnegie and Newbery Medal-winner written two episodes of Doctor Who and QC Preflight Point Neil Gaiman and Greenaway appeared in The Simpsons as himself. Pirate Stew! Pirate Stew! Medal-winner Chris Riddell. CHRIS RIDDELL Pirate Stew for me and you! is a much-loved illustrator and acclaimed Marvellously silly and gloriously political cartoonist. He has won the Costa entertaining, this tale of babysitting Children’s Book Award, the Nestlé Gold pirates, flying ships, moonlit donut Award, and is the only artist to have won the three times, feasts and the legendary pirate stew most recently for his illustrations in The Sleeper is told in irresistible, swashbuckling and the Spindle. He was Waterstones Children’s rhyme by Neil Gaiman (Sea-Shantier- Laureate from 2015 to 2017 and has illustrated in-Chief), with a hoard of dazzling the work of many celebrated children’s piratical pictures by Chris Riddell authors, including Neil Gaiman and (Ship’s Cartographer). CHRIS RIDDELL J.K. Rowling. He is the author of the best- selling Goth Girl and Ottoline series and ILLUSTRATED BY Climb aboard, me hearties! co-creator of The Edge Chronicles.

ISBN 978-1-5266-1472-8 90100

9 781526 614728 www.bloomsbury.com £12.99

JKT Job no: 24318 Title: Pirate Stew-UK Client: BB_24318 PirateStew9781526614728_JKT.indd 1 6/8/20 9:54 AM Scn: #175 Size: 702(w)306(h)mm Co: MChoo Dept: DTP D/O: 22.05.20 (Job no: 24318C3 D/O: 22.06.20 Co: Choo) Foil QC Preflight Point 0 0

For two pirates-in-training: Myra the Bold and Sterling the Brave ­ N.G. For Lyra C.R. QC Preflight Point

BLOOMSBURY CHILDREN’S BOOKS Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY CHILDREN’S BOOKS and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Text copyright © Neil Gaiman, 2020 Illustrations copyright © Chris Riddell, 2020 Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author and Illustrator of this work All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: HB: 978-1-5266-1472-8; eBook: 978-1-5266-1470-4 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Printed and bound in China by C&C Offset Printing Co Ltd, Shenzhen, Guangdong

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NEIL GAIMAN

ILLUSTRATED BY CHRIS RIDDELL

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Pirate Stew! Pirate Stew! Pirate Stew for me and you!

The night my mum and dad went out I said, “We won’t be babysat!” They said, “You must not grump and pout. We’re going out and that is that. We’ve planned a quite exciting night: At first we’ll dine by candlelight, then watch a most instructive show in which we’ll learn how flowers grow. You have to promise to behave.”

Then from the hall there came a pitter- thump. “We know you’ll both be brave. Say hello to your babysitter.”

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His hair was grey. His face was scarred. Right leg a peg, left hand a hook. He grinned a grin and said, “My card.” It read,

Long John McRon Ship’s Cook.

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My mum and dad said, “Time to run. Mr McRon is going to feed you.” Long John said, “Mateys, you have fun and we will call you if we need you. Which we will not.” So off they zoomed. My sister whispered, “We are doomed.”

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