Pirates

by Colin Hawkins, Jacqui Hawkins

Pirates are the scourge of the seven seas, the outlaws of the oceans, bringing terror and trembling to the hearts of hones sea-faring folk and lily livered landlubbers.

If you are bowled over by these bold buccaneers, you'll be hooked by this book. As you discover the dastardly doings of these rum-recking rogues, you'll cringe at their cut-throat customs and their grog-guzzling gallivanting will make you gasp. Shiver me timbers!

Genres: Pirates, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Colin Hawkins (1945) was born in Blackpool, England, and won a scholarship to art school at the age of thirteen. He and his wife, Jacqui Hawkins, produced their first children’s book, Witches, in 1981 and over one hundred titles have followed since then.

Reviews

[Gerry]

Kids will love this book because it is full of pirate jokes, some quite corny but most appealing to youngsters, and superb illustrations. It also introduces them to any number of pirates who sailed the high seas and presents a variety of different guises that they can appear in.

My own image of a pirate was formed by a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island' that I had as a boy and I thought all pirates had a wooden leg and a parrot on their shoulder and used to sing 'Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum' while the parrot screamed 'Pieces of eight' over and over again! There are some of these stereo-types in this book but there are also those who prefer to be more sartorial and less nasty looking.

But a final verse in the book supports my view as it sums the pirates up with 'Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum,/A burnt black sausage in my tum/So put on your peg leg, yer eye patch, too,/If you're after treasure you can join our crew.'

It is a fun book which will probably lead youngsters on to find out more about pirates and reminds oldsters of what they read when young!

[Tina]

A hilarious read.