September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! How are you going to celebrate? This month we’ll be sharing pirate books in our Morning Basket. Some are engaging non-fiction books that will bring these colorful real-life characters to life for your kids. Others are just fun picture books featuring cartoon pirate characters.
Pirates can be fun villains in children’s books, but also brutal characters in history books. Some of the non-fiction books might have more details than you may feel comfortable sharing with younger children. These are all books written for children, but you may want to pre-read the older books if you have sensitive kids. I’ve divided the books between older and younger kids to separate out those books that I think would be a good fit for upper elementary and older kids. That being said, let’s dive into some fun pirate books this month!
Pirate Books for Older Kids
Pirateology – This is a beautiful book that follows the journey of a fictitious pirate hunter who travels the globe trying to capture Arabelle Drummond. You’ll find information about ocean navigation, types of ships, pirate flags, weapons, and other famous pirates. Keep a global map handy to follow this ship around the world!
Pirates and Shipwrecks: True Stories – This is part of the Mystery and Mayhem series of books meant for 9-12 year olds. These 5 true pirate stories will engage your older kids with adventures on the high seas!
DK Eyewonder: Pirates – Learn about pirates all around the world as far back as the Vikings through modern day pirates.
DK Pirate: Discover the Pirates Who Terrorized the Seas from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean -This is a more advanced version of the book above – both from DK. It’s starts with the pirates of Ancient Greece and Rome and moves through history detailing the ships, food, weaponry, treasure, and lifestyle. It also includes a brief summary of “Who’s Who” of the most famous pirates. Check out the resources in the back to continue learning more about pirates.
Sea Queens: Women Pirates Around the World and Anne Bonny and Mary Read: Fearsome Female Pirates of the Eighteenth Century – A pirate book list wouldn’t be complete without highlighting the women!
The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found and Real Pirates: The Untold Story of Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship – Read about a slave ship that was captured and turned into a pirate ship. It wrecked off the New England coast and was later discovered by explorers. The first book listed is a longer chapter book, but the other book may keep the interest of younger kids.
Who Was Blackbeard? and Blackbeard the Pirate King – You’ll definitely want to spend some time reading about Blackbeard, the most famous pirate of all.
Gross Facts About Pirates – Because, why not?! There are plenty of gross facts to keep the kids entertained! This is a smaller book, but because of the content, you may want to save this for the older kiddos.
Treasure Island is a classic pirate tale that don’t want to miss! This unabridged and illustrated version will delight your older readers.
Pirate Books for Younger Kids
Lives of the Pirates: Swashbucklers, Scoundrels (Neighbors Beware!) – I was really excited to find this book because we love another book in this series – Lives of Scientists. Learn about 20 real life pirates – starting with a Scandinavian princess who became a pirate! Each chapter is short enough to hold younger kids’ attention, but my 10 year old also loves this book.
1001 Pirate Things to Spot is a fun look and count type book featuring all things pirates!
The Pirates Next Door – This a cute story about the trouble and surprises that happen when a pirate family moves next door.
How I Became a Pirate – A fun picture book story follows a kids on his one day as a pirate!
Pirates go to School – A simple but fun picture book about pirates coming to a regular school. What adventures are in store?
Little Stickers: Pirates – Create your own pirate scenes with reusable stickers!
How to Live Like a Caribbean Pirate – Learn about the Pirate Code, life on board the ship, weaponry, clothing and more in this book geared more towards younger kiddos.
The Amazing History of Pirates – Crafts and activities is what sets this book apart. After reading about pirates, have your kids make a ship, a cannon, a navigation map, pirate flag, and more!
On a Pirate Ship is a fun pirate adventure board book for your littlest learners!
That’s Not My Pirate is a board book packed with different textures for your toddlers to explore!
You Wouldn’t Want to be a Pirate’s Prisoner and You Wouldn’t Want to Sail with Sir Frances Drake! are adventurous pirate books from one of our favorite book series.
Magic Tree House: Pirates Past Noon, and Magic Tree House Fact Checker: Pirates – My kids love this series of books, so we always search to see if they have a book for every theme we do.
The Best Book of Pirates – This is a great non-fiction pirate book for younger kids. It goes into much of the same information as the DK books but with easier language for the littles.
Don’t just limit your pirate fun to September! These are great books to read all year long. Sharing these with my kids has made me want read more about pirates on my own. Who’s your favorite pirate?
Great list of pirate books! We also enjoyed the chapter book about pirates called FISH by Gregory Mone.
Thanks, we’ll have to check that out!