Who Was Blackbeard?

Who Was . . . ? Series

by James Buckley Jr., Joseph J.M. Qiu (Illustrator)

Though much of his early life remains a mystery, Blackbeard most likely began his life as Edward Teach in the sailing port of Bristol, England. He began his career as a hired British sailor during Queen Anne’s War. He eventually settled in the Bahamas under Captain Benjamin Hornigold who taught the young sailor to go "a-pirating." Soon enough, Blackbeard was commanding his own fleet and stealing ships around the Caribbean and up and down the Eastern seaboard. Known for his thick, black beard and fearsome reputation, the legend of Blackbeard has influenced pirate legend and lore for over 300 years.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Pirates, Childrens, Biography Memoir, Middle Grade

105 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2015

About the author

In addition to his work as a professional editor, James Buckley, Jr., is also the author of many books on American sports that are geared toward young fans and budding athletes.

Buckley, who has founded a company called Shoreline Publishing Group to produce books for reluctant readers, maintains that sports are far more than simple hobbies or ways to burn off excess energy.

Reviews

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book along with the audio from https://pt.scribd.com, that is a new site here in Brazil. It's quite easier to read a book hearing the audio at the same time. I learned a lot about real pirates, because the movies and fiction books make up too many things about them.

[Daniel Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, educational series. Blackbeard was Public Enemy Number 1 of the American Colonies in 1717. British Navy killed him after a couple years. Thought to be Edward Teach, from Bristol, England.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting!

Who was Blackbeard?
By James Buckley
A great addition to the series! An informative and interesting book of a terrifying seaman and crook! Maybe they should have a book on Maynard, the man who finally got him!

[Shankar B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the part where Blackbeard fought other ships using cannonballs. I rode Pirates of the Caribbean at Disney and it reminded me of Blackbeard.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun children's book about Edward Teach. It also covered the life and context of pirates in the early 1700s. There were a lot of things that I didn't know about pirates. This was a fast read and enjoyable.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!!!

[ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for the 2025 library challenge.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite holiday to celebrate with my kiddos is International Speak Like a Pirate Day on September 19. As part of the festivities this year, I read this book to them the prior week and then we used it to practice writing research papers for our Wax Museum reports.

The funniest part was about halfway through, when several of the kids were like "Wait, this is a true story?!" :p Lol. I did tell them it was a biography, but *SHOCK* some of them weren't listening.

Fabulous series! I love it!


Review 2 and 3 - September 2018

I just read this once to the AM kids and once to the PM kids. It was fun, as always. Blackbeard’s death is always the most mind boggling part. He really was a legend. It’s fun learning about pirates and the kids enjoy it.

[Tiegen D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting nonfiction book. I didn't even know Blackbeard was actually real, and was a pirate. I learned a lot from this book and surprised by many details about Blackbeard. I chose this book because I used to really like the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. An important lesson I learned is that your never totally safe, something can always surprise you. If I could rewrite this book I would give more detail in what their ships looked like and what other pirates looked like. I would recommend this book to anyone who like action adventure but has to read nonfiction.

[Taun · Rating 4 out of 5]

My students and I enjoyed this entertaining book. The history is written in an engaging manner, and as a teacher I appreciate that it’s thorough without being overwhelming and/or monotonous. The accounts of Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, are fascinating, as well as the close look at piracy of time.

The snippets of information, like the paragraphs on scurvy, serve to expand upon the social history, customs, geography, etc... and are a fun way to encourage students with further studies about said topics.

We also enjoyed the illustrations, done in pen & ink, and are not cartoony, but rather real life expressions. My middle school students rate this book as a 3.5, I myself rate it a 4.

[Charly Troff (JustaReadingMama) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kids and I are doing a unit study on pirates and this was a perfect read with it. I learned a lot and so did the kids. They were especially excited when it talked about the movie Blackbeard's Ghost, one of our favorite movies!

[Brooke || FindingMyFavoriteBook · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 10 year old thought this book was good…so I read it too! Where better to read about Pirates of the Caribbean than on a beach trip in the Caribbean? It was fun to read about Edward Teach AKA Blackbeard. Learned some things too. Love this series of books!

[Rylan Peters]

very interesting

[Todd Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice overview of Blackbeard the pirate.

[Sabrina Bain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting facts

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Review: I haven't read many of these Who Was books and they are a little advanced for Munchkin yet (equivalent to a level 4 maybe in the early reader books), but I really like that there are so many non-fiction books to choose from. This was a great book to pickup as part of my pirate month. Not only did we find out Blackbeard and how his legend came to be (and ended) but it also debunked several pirate myths as well as point out facts about them. It was very informative, but still enjoyable to read and had a lot of great illustrations.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book blackbeard by James Buckley jr was quite interesting. He starts off living normal he's real name was Edward teach and was born in Bristol of course. He was obviously born there because bristol was one of the busiest port in England. He later started working for a sailor himself and was known for working in queen Anne's war that lasted eleven years. And Edward saw himself becoming a sailor and had to accomplish many skills that he was actually really good at.But during the war sailors would have permission to steal cargo from others and as soon as the war ended many privateers became pirates .illegal license and stealing without permission . This meant danger. And what was truly amazing to me was that if they captured other ships they would not steal the loot but steal the food and fine clothing. And so Edward became very good at taking over ships and it continued for a long period of time . Until a new group of pirates came along and had determined to kill Edward . The lead captain of the ship would have to battle Edward and SPOILER ALERT Edward died a boos he took five gunshot wounds and twenty stabs until he blood out. The captain of the other ship requested to have Edwards head detached from his body . I recommend this book to readers who love the genre history this book will keep making you want to read his books .

[Adam N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book I thought Blackbeard was a myth or a legend. I thought it didn't have to much information above it where he was at in the world like he was at England then he got to the coast of North Carolina it was kind of confusing. I like that they didn't know much about he like his real name it could have been Edward teach or it could of been something else. He seamed like a very very powerful person with like six ships and sixty cannons. What I liked most about the book was that he didn't start out powerful instead he was a small sailor for the United States before the revolutionary war. One fact is that he died be five gun shots and twenty stabs with a sword know one knows if he killed the prisoners that he took or what. When he died his men where hanged and he got his head chopped of and put at the beach near the docks to keep pirates away

[Brandon Zimmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was ok I didn't enjoy it as much as the others I've read, but I thought it was interesting. One thing I liked about this book is it disproved many things about pirates like "walking the plank" and "buried treasure" ,and it gave very good explanations about them. Another thing that I personally liked was it tells you that nobody really knows what his birth name was, and in my opinion that was probably the most interesting thing I learned. If I were the author some things I would have included were some of the legends behind Blackbeard and how those tales came to be. Another thing that would have been nice was a map that showed where he went so the reader could visualize his route. There was nothing in that book that I didn't like and I found it very entertaining. I gave this book a four out of five and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good tale.

[Sam Kuntz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who Was Blackbeard is about Blackbeard's life. When Blackbeard was young (around 1695) he was know as Edward Teach and he dreamed of being a Captain. When Blackbeard was 23, he got his sailing license. He was hired to a ship that later he took over. After taking over many ships, he was killed by Lieutenant Robert Maynard. He became know as Blackbeard because that was what he wanted to be called by his crew and the word spread. Blackbeard was not bad person or a good person. He was just a power hungry person. I gave this book 5 stars because this book is full of fun facts. -Sam Kuntz

[Kaleb Munro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blackbeard by James Buckley jr. Blackbeard is a legendary pirate who fights British soldiers for fun and takes treasure and prize whenever he has a chance. Will Blackbeard find his big prize or will he continue swashbuckling read this book to find out.

In my opinion this book was amazing it had a bunch of legendary stories about Blackbeard . This book made me believe he was the best pirate around and that is why I have this book five stars.

I recommend this book to people who need a quick easy read but want to enjoy the book Blackbeard will inspire for generations to come.

[Ryan Donnellan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book that I read for my nonfiction book report is "Who Was Blackbeard" by James Buckley Jr. The main character is Edward Teach a.k.a Blackbeard. It is about Blackbeard and his adventures as a pirate.

I like everything about this book like how there were no boring parts. There was nothing in this book that I did not like.

I would recommend this book to everybody because there is no strong vocabulary and nothing that is too hard to read.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with most of these books I loved it! My daughter (5) asked lots of questions and I felt she learned a bunch. She loves pirates and was super excited I bought this book for her! The only reason it didn't get 5 stars was it was a little graphic about Blackbeards death. For older kids it was fine but for my 5 year old I left a lot of it out (such as he get beheaded). But overall, well written, lots of information and enjoyable for both adults and kids.

[Lucas F · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book it is a very good page turner. This book would be great for any 5th, 4th, or 3rd grader who enjoy good history books. This book talks about Blackbeard and his life and all the battles he had.

[Mary Lowry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good biography for upper elementary students.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting info and laid out in an enjoyable way that appealed to my 6 year old. I'm interested in the rest of the books in this series.

[AMY · Rating 5 out of 5]

100 pages. Great biography. Well-written. I love pirate books and this one was informative and fun. Recommended for grades 4-5.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick read about then most notorious pirate in history. Very informative!

[Maddison Aiken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a SUPER AWESOME book if you are into Blackbeard the pirate. I have read this book and I give it a five star rating. I recommend this book to people who are into Blackbeard.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not into reading books that are based on supposition, but the only guessing part in this book is the history of who Blackbeard orginally was. The story of Blackbeard's exploits is told well.