Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

A boy makes a gingerbread pirate crew on Christmas Eve; his mom leaves most of the pirates for Santa, but the boy takes the captain to his room. As the boy sleeps, the captain—sporting a ruffled shirt made of icing and a toothpick peg leg—makes his way downstairs (“<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Where's my crew? he wondered. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">And who's this Santa Claus who wants to eat them?”). Luckily, Santa ends up being a friend who gives the pirates a ship of their own. Swashbuckling gusto and a poignant finish should make this a new favorite. Ages 4–10. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

ALA Booklist

On Christmas Eve, Jim and his mother bake and decorate a batch of pirate-shaped cookies, including peg-legged Captain Cookie. That night, the intrepid captain, who heard Jim's mother suggest leaving out "pirates for Santa Claus to eat" and hopes to save his crew from "that cannibal," makes his way to the living room. When Jim awakens on Christmas morning, he finds beside the tree a wonderful model pirate ship manned by wooden pirates who curiously resemble the cookies made the night before. Large in scale and dramatic in effect, watercolor-and-gouache paintings create believable settings, sometimes seen from unusual perspectives, and sympathetically portray the characters, especially the pirates, whose icing-sugar mouths and eyes are surprisingly expressive. Children will enjoy knowing more about Christmas than the pirate captain, who bravely charges himself into a situation he doesn't understand and challenges an unexpectedly benevolent foe. Fine for reading aloud, this secular seasonal story combines pirates and Christmas in a childlike, imaginative picture book.

Horn Book

A pirate captain gingerbread man refuses to accept his crew's fate on the plate of the season's most notorious cookie eater, Santa. In the end, Santa steps in to teach the pirates about the true nature of Christmas, graciously forgoing his snack. Tavares's vivid watercolor and gouache paintings dramatize Kladstrup's lively text with vigor in this imaginative adventure story.

Kirkus Reviews

Captain Cookie is a gingerbread pirate, leader of a batch of buccaneer cookies baked by a boy named Jim and his mom. On Christmas Eve, a plate of the gingerbread pirates is left out for Santa, and Captain Cookie tries to save his men before they are eaten. When Santa arrives, he promises not to eat the pirates and shows them what he has left under the tree: a pirate ship. Captain Cookie and his men take over the ship, and during the night they are transformed by Christmas magic into toy pirates to complete Jim's Christmas present. Illustrator Tavares handles this transformation subtly, and children will enjoy marking the switch from cookie to toy. An extra-large format makes this a fine choice for reading aloud to a group. (Picture book. 3-6)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3 After Jim and his mother bake pirate gingerbread men for Santas snack, toothpick-legged Captain Cookie undertakes a daring rescue of his crew from the hungrybut understandingSanta Claus, who works a magical transformation. When Jim awakes Christmas morning, he finds under the Christmas tree not only a magnificent toy pirate ship, but also a peg-legged captain and crew onboard. An exciting story and full-page, dramatically composed paintings depicting harrowing adventures with a mouse, a cat, and the crew imprisoned in a cookie jar make this a good holiday read-aloud. Maureen Wade, Los Angeles Public Library