How to Become a Pirate

Required:

A treasure map, a scary ship, a good "yo ho ho," a small crew,
and lots of imagination

Optional:

A hook, a beard, and a rambling parrot

If becoming a pirate is your calling, these bountiful products offer plenty of guidance on how to perfect your pirating skills, build a mighty ship, and find your buried treasure. Let your adventures begin ...

Pirates Bounty Treasure Hunt
Ages: 18 months & Up
Manhattan Toy, $25.00

Imaginations set sail with this fun-filled ship, perfect for hours of solo or shared adventures. Stored below deck are two jolly pirates, a treasure map and chest full of gold—five pieces in all. The mast doubles as a handle.

Dora's Pirate Adventure
Ages: 2 - 5 yrs.
Paramount Home Entertainment, $16.99

Join Dora for her biggest adventure ever, a special double-length high-seas musical adventure! Dora, Boots, Diego, and even Baby Jaguar set sail with an ensemble cast in Dora's first musical episode filled with singing, star catching, and plenty of pirate-packed action! Product Description

Pirate Girl
Ages: 3 - 5 yrs.
Author: Siobhan McGowan & Cornelia Funke    Illustrator: Kerstin Meyer
Scholastic Inc./Chicken House, $15.95 (Hardcover)

It doesn't seem fair that only guys get to be pirates. Here, Cornelia Funke gives us the story of Molly, a young girl kidnapped by the most dangerous of pirates, Captain Firebrand. Anticipating a handsome ransom payment, the captain brings her aboard his ship, the Horrible Haddock, and threatens to throw her to the sharks unless she gives up her parents' names. Molly refuses, insisting that Firebrand and his crew would be terrified if they knew her mother's identity. Each night, after peeling potatoes, cleaning the boots of pirate crew members Morgan O'Meany, Ten-Pint Ted and Crooked Carl, polishing cutlasses and swabbing the deck, Molly puts messages in the pirates' empty rum bottles and tosses them into the sea. Her ingenuity is rewarded when a red-sailed ship appears carrying Molly's mother - the pirate Barbarous Barbara. Funke's rousing story is expanded by Kerstin Meyer's watercolor and pen and ink illustrations.

How I Became a Pirate
Ages: 3 - 7 yrs.
Author: Melinda Long    Illustrator: David Shannon
Harcourt Trade Publishers/Harcourt Children's Books, $16.00 (Hardcover)

Author Long's appealing fantasy about a young hero, Jeremy Jacob, and how he comes to join the crew of Captain Braid Beard's pirate ship, is made spell-binding with the addition of artist Shannon's bright, bold and mildly scarifying acrylic illustrations. Listeners learn that pirates have green teeth; sing -- "a little off-key "; and are not above kidnapping young Jeremy after marveling at the handsome sandcastle he is building on the beach. The pirate crew is sorely in need of a good digger to help them bury a treasure. Jeremy becomes their willing captive; nobody tells pirates when to go to bed or take a bath or change into pajamas. But listeners and young hero alike soon learn the negatives of pirate life: no bedtime stories, no tucking- in, no goodnight kisses.