Four Brave Sailors

by Mirra Ginsburg, N. Tafuri (Illustrator)

Four courageous mice become caught up in a variety of exciting and unusual adventures when they set sail on a voyage of discovery in a great white ship

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime

Paperback

First published August 17, 1987

About the author

Mirra Ginsburg was a Jewish Russian-American translator of Russian literature, a collector of folk tales and a children's writer. Born in Bobruisk (then part of the Russian Empire, now part of modern-day Belarus) in 1909, she moved with her family to Latvia, then to Canada, before they settled in the United States. Although she won praise for her translations of adult literature, including the Master and Margarita (1967) by Mikhail Bulgakov and We (1972) by Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin, she is perhaps most celebrated for her contributions to children's literature. She collected and translated a vast array of folktales from the Russian tradition, as well as Siberian and Central Asian traditions. Ginsburg died in 2000.

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice simple story which is quite short about the bravery of the four brave mice sailors with everything they encounter at sea. There is limited, bold text on each page, accompanied by illustrations, making it a suitable read for young children.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four mice go sailing in a big white ship facing storms, whales & pirates. The only thing they are scared of is the narrator's tiger cat.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boat Storytime!

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very brief story of four sailors off on an imagined sail viewing various animals. Copyrighted in 1987 in a small way this title reminds me of the recent title, “The Ship in the Window” although it is a much longer story. It’s mice and sailing a ship.

[Isobel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple book that would be appropriate for reception children it is repetitive and short and therefore it would keep the reception children intrigued in the story.