Growing up in Indiana and wanting to be a pirate--The anguish of the landlubber!

"Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates," from Mark Twain

I loved that quote as a child and was delighted to find it on the inside cover of this book.

Facts about pirates, imagine that!

Alas, ye blood thirsty, swashbuckling landlubbers, the pirate booty has been found.

I found a treasure chest of memorabilia, a book designed to catch the attention of every pirate-dreaming child and pirate-nostalgic adult. I know this for a fact--it caught my attention.

Pirate lore such as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Black Sam Bellamy, Mary Read, and Anne Bonny mustered up some exciting adventures. As a child I knew not what terrors they really performed, in my mind they were pirates like Captain Hook, Israel Hands, Long John Silver, or even Captain Jack Sparrow. They were pure fantasy complete with a lot of adventure on the high seas. They obeyed a code of conduct as if survival depended upon adherence to these rules. If caught by the law, punishments could vary to include marooning or sweating.

As an adult I know better, but the adventurous pirate with his (and her) own set of values and code of conduct, caught my imagination as a child. When Pirates of the Caribbean was first released the memories flooded and I was captivated, just as everyone else was. This movie was truly (for me) too much fun and it set me up for a trip down memory lane.

Hooray, there are "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest, Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum." (How morbid, but enchanting, none-the-less.) My husband often states that I'm the oldest 5th grader he knows--this is probably evidence of the truth of that statement.

John Matthews has captured the spirit of the pirate in his book Pirates. You immediately know this is true. The book cover looks like a pirate flag with a gold-toothed skull, crossbones, and plastic ruby for an eye. (The eye, by-the-way, is an inset jewel on the cover.) The cover introduces the book's buried treasures.

The Treasure
This is the ultimate book on pirates. Everything is here. It contains intrigue, adventure, and some rather bloody details. What does a real pirate wear? I want to dress in some of this when I go see Dead Man's Chest. I can, they show how both the male and female pirates dressed. Pirate captains tended to dress rather fashionably, but they should since they were always removing clothing from other ships. Their clothing while at sea, however, had to be sturdy, practical, and capable of keeping them warm and dry while hiding a variety of weapons. You never knew when a cutlass, gully, or marlinspike would be needed.

Other treasure included a diagram of a pirate ship, The Queen Anne's Revenge, illustrations of other pirate ships with descriptions, images of pirate flags and their associated pirates, and a booklet with pirate slang. Author John Matthews shares historical facts about life on a pirate ship, life on land, punishments, and pirate on-board codes of conduct.

The book is a treasure in many ways. This is an interactive book. Several "attachments" provide realistic artifacts for the true pirate enthusiast. Within the pages of Pirates you will find
▪ An envelope with the "Articles (to be signed by the owner of this book),"--the owner needs to remove the seal and open the envelope to read the 1700s document;
▪ An attached small book of "Pirate Slang"--what does it mean to dance with Jack Ketch?
▪ A fold-out page with pirate flags (Jack Rackham, Blackbeard, Black Bart, Edward Low, Thomas Tew, to name a few),
▪ A "genuine recruitment advertisement from 1779,"
▪ An attached small book, Pirate Gallery, with facts about nine pirates including some women,
▪ A copy of the long-lost, and complete text of "William Kidd's privateer license,"
▪ Another booklet describing Pirate Weapons,
▪ A "1758 French map of Jamaica marking the sites where treasure may still be buried"--let's go,
▪ Three playing cards from the 1700s,
▪ A wanted poster for Blackbeard,
▪ A copy of an "original death sentence passed onto the crew of Bartholomew Roberts in 1722,"
▪ And a timeline of "significant dates in the history of pirates, buccaneers, corsairs, and privateers."

John Matthews obviously had fun creating this comprehensive compendium of pirate lore. While I often thought that Johnny Depp had to have had too much fun living out a childhood fantasy of being a pirate, I now think that the author had just as much fun assembling this treasure chest of pirate lore.

The Book
The book cover is sturdy enough to endure many enthusiastic readings. The cover is constructed like an album, the pages are double-page thick (page-over-page design), they are sturdy, and oversized with some pages having foldout extensions. The font is a heavy calligraphy ink script with a weathered, onion paper look. The maps appear to be replicas of old maps from the 1700s. Everything about this creative book conjures up an image of a time before copy machines and printers. The attention to detail is noteworthy, even down to the imitation wax seals on envelopes. Aside from the pirate lore, the author provides a look into some pages from a different period of time.

Children will consider this book full of mystery and exploring the book will be an adventure that opens up further back-yard adventures. "Ahoy matey, are ye coming onboard this slide?"

The chapters include History, Pirates, Ships and Flags, Life on Board (I lost my desire to be a pirate in this chapter), Pirate Gallery, Pirate Lore (my desire almost returned in this chapter), Pirate Attack, Treasure, Life on Land, Capture and Trial, Punishment, Fiction, and Timeline. Each chapter is only two pages. Archival pictures are combined with contemporary pictures, including those from the movies. I remembered why pirates first appealed. References, vocabulary, and Web links bring the history of pirates into the age of computers.

In Conclusion
"Avast ye landlubbers! Prepare to enter the wicked world of pirates. Here is the stuff of legend, where tales of adventure and intrigue are written in blood." I still consider myself a fan of both the pirate lore and the fantasy, but I did find myself sobered by a dose of pirate reality. Being a pirate was a combination of the best and the worst. The differentiation between fact and fiction, between the fantasy and reality, is provided and you can choose for yourself. The trivia was sufficient for this pirate lore fan.

Was this book released in time for the summer epic, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest? Of course. Is it too commercial? Probably not. The history, biography, trivia, and associations with books and movies make this a fascinating complement for pirate fans of all ages. I think this an epic, well-researched, collection that chronicles buccaneer and pirate trivia, facts, and fancies and is the perfect book to accompany an epic adventure tale of pirates.

In conclusion, pirates were (and still are) vicious villains and criminals, and in reality, they probably had no code of conduct worthy of contemporary respect. The current interest in pirates is no more than a commercial opportunity, but I appreciated this fascinating historical and factual perspective on pirates. "Pirates" still implies adventure and tall tales that captivate both the young and old and in that light, it's simply a lot of fun and nothing to get too serious about.

Fans of pirates will thoroughly enjoy every inch of this informative book. If you're not a fan of pirates and what they represent, I recommend passing, but if you are a fan, don't pass. If you think you have a little piracy in your blood as well as in your heart, you will fancy this book of pirate lore.