Check out The 13 and a half Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers

Need something silly?
I admit it. I totally judged this book by its cover, which features tiny pirates and a large blue bear. Then the first few pages made me smile, and by the time I was laughing out loud I was hooked. If you like very silly characters, improbable coincidences, creative wacky plot twists and interesting fantastic setting, try a bit of fun and check out this book.
The full title of the novel is more descriptive than this review:  The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear: being the demibiography of a seagoing bear, with numerous illustrations and excerpts from the Encyclopedia of the Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs  by Professor Abdullah Nightingale. The Encyclopedia and Nightingale are both fictitious, of course - the inventions of masterful storyteller, author and illustrator Walter Moers, a writer and cartoonist who lives in Hamburg, Germany. Even with 136 black-and-white illustrations and 2 maps, the book still leaves much to the imagination. Originally published in German, this title was translated by John Brownjohn, who clearly conveys Moers’ mythological references, fanciful creativity and hilarious puns and witticisms.
Bluebear presents his autobiography with each of his adventures as a new chapter in his life, hence the 13 ½ lives correspond to both 13 ½ chapters and 13 ½ adventures.  A bluebear has 27 lives, but Bluebear tells only half of his story here, to preserve his privacy and a sense of mystery. Bluebear’s life begins afloat in a tiny nutshell. He’s about to be sucked into a whirlpool of epic proportions, when he is rescued by Mini-Pirates, who travel with him until he grows too large for their boats, and then they maroon him on an island. Bluebear lives among the emotionally-draining Hobgoblins until he escapes to the sea again, where he is educated by two insane ocean waves called the Babbling Billows. After a very scary encounter with the predatory Tyrannomobyus Rex, Bluebear relaxes on the bountiful Gourmet Island, where everything taste so delicious that it almost seems like someone is trying to fatten him up. Without giving too much away, Bluebear is rescued from Gourmet Island in the nick of time, and his life story continues in Chapter 5 “My Life as a Navigator” which is when things really start to get complicated.  Using interspersed excerpts from Nightingale’s Encyclopedia, Moers conveys hilarious details about the creatures and places that Bluebear encounters. The story takes us from one zany adventure to the next as Bluebear makes his way around the treacherous oceans and across the vast continent of Zamonia in search of the city of Atlantis.
Reviewed by Lissa Staley