P is for Pirate is a fun, lighthearted book on the history of piracy. Hollywood created the stereotypical pirate image that is known today. This book does a great job of shining a light on facts and debunking legends. The colorful illustrations align with the playful tone of the text in a brilliant way. The reader will learn about different pirates (I was thrilled to see Grace O’Malley), as well as life on and off ships. Did “X” mark the spot on treasure maps? Did captains make mutineers walk the plank? These questions and more are answered in this very fun read! ( )

This is a fun picture book depicting caricature-like renditions of pirates and ships and related things. Formatting a nonfiction book about pirates as an alphabet book is a fun way to delve into various aspects of the pirate life and give a brief overview of its history; P is for Pirate gives just enough of a taste of various things that children will be able to figure out what they’re interested in learning more about (e.g. ships, Blackbeard, women pirates, etc.) and go from there, if they want to explore the subject further. This book covers topics from Henry Morgan and Blackbeard to the types of ships pirates used to sail on, and where they used to sail to. It’s very informative and the illustrations are lovely.

I have one complaint, though. I’m not really sure who this book is supposed to be for; the alphabet theme and caricatured illustrations make it seem like it’s for quite a young audience, but then there’s blocks of text on the side that have vocabulary and sentence structure appropriate for more of an older audience, like middle grade children. I’m not sure if middle graders would enjoy the alphabet theme, though they may enjoy the historical content. It’s not a huge deal, it’s just a bit confusing and harder to be able to tell which age group will enjoy this most.

In any case, I do think that this is a great introduction book for children who want to learn more about pirates and their history. I think it’d be a great read-aloud book for families, which would help offset the problems created by having large text for what looks to be a young children’s book; I certainly can see it help sparking children’s interest in learning more about history.

Also posted on Purple People Readers. ( )

I had mixed feelings about this book. I am still on the fence of whether or not I liked it. A thing that I did like was depth of information in this book. There was so much detail. Each set of pages dealt with one letter and was two to three sentences long, and the sides of the pages went into detail about what was presented for the corresponding letter. For example, p is for pirates, and on the sides of the pages other information was given on pirates, including other names; such as, buccaneer. Another thing that I liked about the book is the set up I already mentioned. I feel that it makes this book more accessible to different ages. Younger children can stick to the main text and simple sentences, while older children can enjoy the marginalized text. A book set up in this type of way can be great for differentiation in a classroom without injuring self esteem of students. What I did not like was some of the actual content. I understand that pirates are actually the most suitable topic for children, and this book did not censor much. For example, F in this book was for flogging. I do not think it is appropriate. There were also quotes about hanging other men like dogs. This is where I am torn because I do not like when books are censored from children, but I do not know if this book is too much. The overall message of this book is to inform children about pirates.