19th September International Talk Like a Pirate Day

 If it’s September 19, then it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I haven't talked about pirates on this blog for quite some time and we haven't done a display of pirate books in the library for a long time either. They were out of favour...no longer birthday party themes or part of small boy's game play. So I weeded quite a lot of titles. While deciding whether to weed more, I realised that this day was coming up and we decided why not put out a table full of titles and see what is borrowed. Well the preschoolers have thoroughly enjoyed browsing through them and many have gone home.

Next I'll put out some of the chapter books and see if Year 1 and 2 borrow any.

As well as Pirates Love Underpants we have kept these  picture books among others:

• How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon

• Tough Boris  by Mem Fox and Kathryn Brown

• Pirate Stew  by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell

• The Pirate Cruncher  by Jonny Duddle

• The Pirates Next Door  by Jonny Duddle

• Pirate Bob  by Kathryn Lasky and David Clark

• Molly Rogers, Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke and Kasia Matyjaszek

• The Night Pirates  by Peter Harris and Deborah Allwright

• On a Pirate Ship  by Anna Millbourne and Benji Davies

• The Pirates are Coming!  by John Condon and Matt Hunt 

•  Billy and the Pirates by Nadia Shireen

• Class Three All At Sea  by Julia Jarman and Lynne Chapman

• Tim, Ted and the Pirates  by Ian Whybrow and Russell Auto

• The Treasure of Pirate Frank by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham

Chapter book series we still have:

• Pirate Patch  by Rose Impey and Nathan Reed

• The Jolley-Rogers  by Jonny Duddle

• Captain Clawbeak  by Anne Morgan

• Swashbuckle Lil  by Elli Wollard

• The Littlest Pirate  by Sherryl Clark

• Pirate Blunderbeard by Amy Sparks

19th September Talk Like a Pirate Day

Talk Like a Pirate Day can be lots of fun and an easy day to organise for some kind of event in a school setting. This year we are keeping it low key with just a display in the library. We have so many pirate stories, but many of them are on loan to one of the preschool classes, some such as Captain Pugwash have been the focus of displays before, so this time we focussed more on the three Pirate Pete picture books by the brother and sister team of Kim and Doug Kennedy and the chapter books. There are so many series which have a pirate theme - there is

• Pirate Princess by Judy Brown. There are four in this series, Pandora, Portia, Pancake and Poppy.

• Captain Clawbeak by Ann Morgan. There are three of these - Red Herring; Ghostly Galleon and One and Only.

• Dragon Blood Pirates by Dan Jerris. There are 18 books about the adventures of Al and Owen.

• Brother and sister Billy and Heidi encounter pirates in Pirates Eat Porridge and Pirates Drive Buses by Christopher Morgan.

• Scratch Kitten by Jessica Green. There are about six titles now, but perhaps the most appropriate here is Scratch Kitten on the Pirate's Shoulder.