A Girl With a Sword

in honor of national talk like a pirate day

I have composed a list of my top five children's stories about pirates. I know it's a little specific, but it's what I had to go on this morning when I was working in children's books and thinking about pirates.

1. Of course this has to go to "The Rebel Princess" from The Serpent Slayer by Katrin Tchana and Trina Schart Hyman.

2. Pirate Jam by Jo Brown. This one's about two pirates who get kicked out of pirate school because they prefer tea to grog. I feel for them, man.

3. The Ballad of the Pirate Queens by Jane Yolen and David Shannon. A beautiful retelling of that great pirate tale that ends with pregnancy instead of death. It's nice to be a girl sometimes. Most of the time. Yes.

4. Captain Abdul's Pirate School by Colin Mcnaughton. Convinces me that the best pirate stories are not the true-to-life ones, but the ones with all the good pirate jargon strung together and lots of great pirate names. Avast, me maties!

5. This is a tie. I haven't read Margaret Mahy's The Great Piratical Rubustification because it's too long for me to sneak in during work, but it looks like good stuff. I did get to read How I Became A Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon, and it had all the great piratey elements mentioned in #4. Arrrrr!

The tea shop across the street from my work had a special today: 10% off for ordering in a pirate voice. With my background in accents and dialects I had to do it. I got some great Harvard Square Earl Grey.