Lives of the Pirates: Swashbucklers, Scoundrels (Neighbors Beware!) by Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt

Arrrhg! Avast, me hearties! If you’se been wantin’ to learn about the real tales of famous and infamous pirates, like meself, the book for you is Lives of the Pirates: Swashbucklers, Scoundrels (Neighbors Beware!) by the talented lasses Kathleen Krull & Kathryn Hewitt!

This book is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, and you’ll discover a treasure trove of facts about such pirates (males and females) as Alvilda, a Scandinavian princess-turned-pirate; the Barbarossa Brothers, named that because of their red hair and beards; Sir Francis Drake, who was also a famous explorer in the time of Queen Elizabeth I; Captain Kidd, who “may have been the only pirate who ever buried his treasure”; and Blackbeard, who braided his beard and tied the ends with ribbons and “lit matches and twisted them into his hair when he invaded a ship” to appear more “diabolical.”

Those are just a taste of the tempting nuggets of knowledge that this book contains about the lives of the pirates. Though I had known there had been some female pirates, I was amazed to read the remarkable stories about their lives presented in this book. They were every bit as deadly and motivated by the lure of wealth and treasure as the men who chose pirating as their profession.

For instance, besides Alivida, who may or may not have actually existed (if she did, she’d be the earliest known woman pirate in history) there were Lady Mary Killigrew, Grace O’Malley, Mary Read & Anne Bonny, Rachel Wall, and the Chinese pirate, Madame Cheng. I enjoyed reading about them all, but especially about Madame Cheng, because she was ruthless and at one time commanded “two thousand ships and the largest pirate gang in history.” She started out being the wife of Cheng I, who himself commanded a pirate fleet of four hundred ships. When he got “washed overboard in a gale,” Madame Cheng “was elected the new head.” She and her pirates were very brutal, burning down any villages that resisted them. Also, according to the authors, the pirates would often behead villagers, and then “they wore the heads as necklaces.”

One thing I really liked about the book besides the short bios on each of the pirates were the tidbits of trivia at the end of the bios called “Buried Treasure.” For example, at the conclusion of the bio on William Dampier, trivia included in the “Buried Treasure,” section mentions that Dampier’s journals “inspired Daniel Defoe’s classic Robinson Crusoe.” Also, he “introduced more than one thousand words to the language,” and his observations and drawings on nature “influenced the biologist Charles Darwin and his Origin of the Species (1859).”

The colorful illustrations throughout the book by the talented illustrator Kathryn Hewitt were a big plus, and give you an idea (though in cartoon form) about what the pirates might have looked like. They’re done as caricatures, with huge heads in proportion to their bodies, much like illustrations in some versions of Alice in Wonderland. They help bring the stories to life, and go well with the brief bios.

Lives of the Pirates: Swashbucklers, Scoundrels (Neighbors Beware!) is an excellent informative resource to introduce older children to the lives of some of the world’s most famous pirates. It’s a book in a series of books beginning with the words: Lives of…, like Lives of the Musicians, Lives of the Athletes, and Lives of the Presidents. So, if you’ve been wanting to learn more about pirates, this is the book for you!