Reviews
The Dread Crew by Kate Inglis is a hilarious and highly imaginative tale that plays with the tradition of Atlantic Canada pirate stories. Inglis's spirited prose is a treat to read. Her descriptions of the pirates' repulsive appearance and foul habits elicit the perfect blend of disgust and glee.
The Dread Crew is a tale of imagination and friendship. This is a spirited tale, gorgeously rendered. A debut work from a confident writer I feel sure will delight us again in the future.
The Dread Crew is the exciting debut of an extremely gifted, original writer. Sparkling wordplay, drop-dread humour, kooky, unforgettable characters in a world so richly imagined, readers will want more, more, more. I've just become a Dread Crew tracker and huge Inglis fan.
~ Author Sheree Fitch
There are still pirates in Nova Scotia. They roam the barely-lit edges of his world but he has proof. It's a world filled with secret documents, maps, and mysterious totems. In other words, Kate has made a world where there is still adventure in the woods... Kids love stories about any creatures more poorly behaved than themselves, and the pirates of the backwoods will not disappoint even the most unruly jackanape under your roof.
~ James Griffioen of Sweet Juniper
THE DREAD CREW is a wildly imaginative frolic through a woods that is both eerily dark and splendidly foolish. From the book's spooky opening chapter to the marvelous rumblings of the Barrow land-ship; through the cobratic dreadlocks of Captain Hector the Wrecker Gristle and the maggoty beard of First Mate Vincent the Vile Van Goon; to the savage plundering raids for bricabrac and assorted trash this book is a nonstop roller coaster of kid-flavoured fun and excitement.
~ Author Steve Vernon
There is a strong message to this book, but the imaginative scope, slapstick humour and overall joyful noise of the whole package runs counter to any dread didacticism. The illustrations by Sydney Smith are both playful and other-worldly. They are the perfect match for Inglis' belching, romping, refreshing words.
~ Sue Fisher of Mousetraps & the Moon and Curator of the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection at the University of New Brunswick
About two-thirds of the way in, I found myself filled with something that felt very much like joy. The Dread Crew achieved a kind of alchemy that is, honestly, beyond rare for me. If you haven't read this yet, I envy you. You're about to experience something truly wonderful.
~ TwoBusy
The Dread Crew is a children's book, but like all the best children's books, that means that adults can ostensibly buy it for someone else and read it themselves on the sly. The book as a whole was...... I find it hard to pinpoint the precise, correct word. 'Entrancing' is closest.
~ Loth of The Gym Isn't Working
Instead of keeping Eric and Missy and Grandpa Joe and the Dread Crew to myself, I'll read it to my own kids with the same passion that I read - over and over and over again - Peter Pan and, soon, the chronicles of Narnia and the adventures of the Five and the Twins and Miss Drew and Harriet and, I suppose, Harry Potter and his gang. And I will insist to them that pirates are as real and as awesome as the Dread Crew, and that they could find them, too, if they applied themselves hard enough to looking.
~ Catherine Connors of Her Bad Mother
The humor and sarcasm of Kate’s writing would have made this book a favorite of mine when I was a boy. The tone reminded me of those oddball adventure books written by Roald Dahl. The Dread Crew turns piracy on its head in unexpected ways.
~ Neil Kramer of Citizen of the Month
Of course you’re going to like it. It’s pirates, after all, with crazy names and super cool illustrations... There’s a spunky deaf girl and a ship on wheels and a little boy who trusts his instincts. Did I mention the hot dogs? And there’s an old guy who thinks he’s too old for adventure and all these pirates, the deaf girl, the kid with the instincts—they all come together to teach him otherwise. Because too old for adventure? There’s no such thing. You’re never too old for adventure. Just like you’re never too old for cool books for kids about pirates.
~ BHJ
A tangle of mouldering landscapes peppered with deliciously absurd characters, sort of in the vein of Roald Dahl only more sophisticatedly, outrageously so, the Dread Crew is a tale of gruesomeness and delight, wildness and wonder.