Module 11 What if you met a pirate

Bibliography:

Adkins, J.(2004). What if you met a pirate?: an historical voyage of seafaring speculation. Brookfield, CN: Roaring Brook Press.

All pirates are fancy dressers brandishing multiple weapons and wearing lots of jewlery,right? Not according to Jan Adkins. Instead most pirates were actually common sailors who occasionally stole. On board a pirate ship, the men worked and slept in shifts. I finally learned why Navy personal refer to the bathroom as "the head." "The head" was holes in a board hanging over the side of the ship at the front of the ship. Pirates didn't live to be very old. They usually died from disease or were hanged.

Reviews:
Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, Oct. 15, 2004 (Vol. 101, No. 4))Can it be that walking the plank was a fictional punishment invented by illustrator Howard Pyle? In this appealing book, Adkins gives readers the lowdown on what life under the pirate flag was really like. After setting up the conventional portrait of swaggering, singing sailors in colorful duds, he replaces it with a more realistic picture of hard-working sailors who "might swashbuckle just a few hours each month" and bathed considerably less. Yet this realistic portrayal of pirates and their activities is even more intriguing than the romanticized version he debunks. Adkins strikes just the right note in the text, always informative and frequently entertaining as well. Bright with color washes, the excellent, energetic drawings show pirates engaged in a variety of activities, from pumping out the bilge to braiding each other's hair to using the open-air bathroom at the front of the ship. In a send-up of current book marketing, the back cover carries appreciative comments by the likes of Queen Elizabeth I and Leonardo da Vinci. Where pirate fever runs high this spirited presentation will find an enthusiastic audience. For more titles, see the Read-alikes, "Ship Ahoy!" [BKL S 1 04]. Category: Books for Middle Readers--Nonfiction. 2004, Millbrook/Roaring Brook, $16.95. Gr. 3-5. Starred Review

Sheree White (Children's Literature)Meet the pirate we all know from books and movies. He has a dagger, cutlass, pistols, silver-buckled boots, a fancy jacket, and maybe a wooden leg and the occasional parrot. The author then tells us in What if You Met a Pirate? that he would not be a successful pirate. The rest of this lengthy picture book is fascinating and full of facts, anecdotes and detailed illustrations. Adkins draws interesting connections between pirates and the British Royal Navy, and between being a pirate and a privateer (a more respectable name). Did pirates really spend most of their time sailing the cannon-loaded ships you see in the movies? Not! He draws illustrations of the different types of boats pirates actually spent most of their time sailing in, like schooners which were slim, shallow, and fast; briggs, which were pirates’ favorite sailing vessels. What did pirates eat? Try hardtacks for a start. “A dried brown biscuit called hardtack that kept for years, drank beer, wine and grog (water mixed with rum) and salamagundi, a favorite dish make from several kinds of meat, fish and fowl cooked in spiced wine… .” The pictures are simply drawn, but detailed illustrations. Adkins’s description of how a canon works and what malfunctions could occur would please those interested in weapons. Pirates had an orderly and sophisticated social order on board. They were hard working and fair. Though they practiced a strong code of ethics among themselves, they were much more devious in capturing their prizes from other boats. The very brief biographies of such famous sailors and pirates as Walter Drake, Walter Raleigh, Blackbeard and Captain William Kidd were incredibly fascinating, showing us that truth is stranger that fiction. The book also included an index and glossary of pirate words. This book would make a great gift for anyone remotely interested in pirates. 2004, Roaring Brook Press, $16.95. Ages 6 to 12.