Book Review: The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook by Jason Heller
Friday, May 20th, 2011
Title: The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook
Author: Jason Heller
Pages: 176
Publisher: Quirk Books
Published: May 3rd, 2011
Where I got the book: Review Copy from Publisher
From the back cover:
For every would-be pirate who’s wished to cast off the shackles of landlubber society, here is the official guide to taking up seagoing roguishness the right way—er, that is, the right wrong way—well, let’s just say Jack’s way.
The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook gives you an insider’s perspective on all the dirty tricks of the buccaneer’s trade, helpfully arrrrrrrrrticulating such vital nautical information as:
• How to Bury Treasure
• How to Break a Curse
• How to Fight a Tavern Full of Angry Men
• How to Stay Alive When Your Ship Sinks
• How to Cope with Mermaids
. . . and dozens more crucial skills you’ll want to master before hitting the high seas.
Review:
When I was asked if I would like to review The Jack Sparrow Handbook I was worried that I would discover the book to be nothing more of pictures of Johnny Depp dressed as the trademark character from the films. Yes, there are pictures of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow but far less than I anticipated. Instead I discovered this book to be a nice blend of humor, facts, and product placement.
For a book about pirates, this one isn’t half bad. There are six chapters that give step-by-stop instructions and how to do pirate-y things like treating a wound or cope with mermaids. Sometimes these instructions might be considered borderline helpful which caught me off guard. I expected this book to be nothing but a giant advertisement for the new film. Alas, this book might actually teach your something useful. It mixes sections titled “How to Vanquish Davy Jones” (nonsensical) with “How to Escape from Being Tied Up” (practical). Now, having never been tied up, I can’t vouch for the reliability of the steps it provides. They do, however, sound practical. Then there is the section about the five greatest pirates. A quick Google search led me to wikipedia pages for each of these five pirates. I can conclude that this book is reliable as, if not more than, wikipedia. You might just learn something.
The downside of this book is that it attempts to shoehorn the name Jack Sparrow in to the text at every opportunity it can. That’s probably the point of the book if I stop to consider it’s name. But it can be a little distracting if you are treating this book as a serious tome about pirates.
Closing Thoughts: I was surprised by the quality of information contained in The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook. It might actually contain useful information. But the constant shoehorning of Jack Sparrow’s name does get a little tiresome.
Question: Have you read any movie tie-in books? Were they good? Bad?













