It is my turn on the blog tour for Blog Tour: Captain Vlad and the Mary Rose by Kate and Sam Cunningham, published by Reading Riddle.

Kate Cunningham was a primary school teacher for nine years, before writing and publishing the first Vlad flea book in 2016. Reading Riddle grew out of her passion for books and a belief that children learn best when they are enjoying themselves. She is married to historian, Sean Cunningham, and Sam is the eldest of her three sons. In between writing books Kate does school and library visits.

Sam Cunningham graduated from Gloucestershire University. He produced the murals for the Family Corner in the Florence Nightingale Museum and images for The Carpenter’s Tale and The Scaffolder’s Tale in the National Archives graphic arts project e-book.

My spot on this tour takes the form of a book review.

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Title: Captain Vlad and the Mary Rose

Written by: Kate Cunningham

Illustrated by: Sam Cunningham

Published by: Reading Riddle

Captain Vlad and the Mary Rose is a glorious picture book outlining the exploits of Vlad the Flea onboard the Mary Rose in 1544, during the third French War, a year before this iconic ship sunk. This book is written and illustrated by a mother and son team and is part of a series that follows Vlad the Flea throughout history. Other books in the series include Vlad and the Great Fire of London, Vlad and Tutankhamun’s Tomb and Vlad and the Roman Triumph, which all have accompanying activity books.

The detail in the illustrations are just stunning. The bright bold colours will appeal to young children and the readers will love to explore the inner workings of the Mary Rose and its crew, whilst hunting for dangers onboard, such as the addition of a dog and the threat of a hawk hovering above. The plot is fast paced, which will grip the reader’s attention. The ship’s rats all have humorous names to help identify them.

At the back of the book there is a brief history of the Mary Rose outlining when it sank, which helps to place the story on the timeline. It was evident that a lot of historical research had gone into writing this book.

Captain Vlad and the Mary Rose would be ideal for the classroom to support a topic on the Tudors and will provide the class with a great overview of what life was like on board a Tudor war ship.

A fun book that will spark young children’s imaginations and foster a love of history.

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You can find out more about Kate Cunningham and her books on her website: 

www.readingriddle.co.uk, on Twitter @reading_riddle, on Instagram @reading_riddle, on Facebook: www.facebook.com/readingriddle and on TikTok: @readingriddle.

Find more of Sam’s work and how to contact him on his website www.samcunninghamart.com

To follow the rest of the tour take a look at the schedule:

I would like to thank Anne Cater from Random Things Through My Letterbox for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.

I have also had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Mary : Adrift in the Sea of Sorrow by Kate Cunningham, also published by Reading Riddle. To read this review of her multi-viewpoint, plot driven, YA novel set in a dystopian post-pandemic world, take a look at: Book Review: Mary: Adrift in the Sea of Sorrow.

To read my interview with Kate Cunningham about her writing process for Mary : Adrift in the Sea of Sorrow take a look at: Blog Tour – Mary : Adrift in the Sea of Sorrow by Kate Cunningham.