Shiver me Timbers

As I have mentioned before, the theme for the reading camp I am working at this summer is, "Under the Sea."  My group is mostly boys.  We talk about pirates-a lot. I now know a lot about actual pirates thanks to the Magic Tree House Research Guide book on Pirates.  I also read a delightful pirate picture book, Jolly Roger.  So when I started reading Charles Boardman Hawes The Dark Frigate my first thought was, "oh no, more pirates."

           

Now don't get me wrong.  I like pirates as much as the next person but this is a little excessive so my analysis of The Dark Frigate may be a little biased because I am currently on pirate overload.  On the plus side my immersion into pirate and sea culture has given me a strong grasp of sea-faring language.  Once you get the hang of it it's a really neat dialect.  I think that's why so many people switched their facebook language preference to Pirate English.  I say all of that to say Hawes did an excellent job capturing the unique language of seafaring folk.

The Dark Frigate has all of the adventure you want in a book about a young boy who runs away from school and joins up, somewhat accidentally, with Pirates.  One of my favorite conversations was between Philip and his new pirate friends. "And what if I have no money [asked Philip]"  "We are the better matched [answered the pirate]."  I feel like this is the story of my existence as I work my way through school, especially since all of my friends are in the same boat (ha ha what a pun).

I will leave you with the summary that comes with the book (normally I make up my own because the ones in the book are long and give away too much for my taste but this one is just great)

The Dark Frigate

Where in is told the story of Philip Marsham

who lived int he time of King Charles

and was bred a sailor

but came home to England after many hazards

by sea and land and fought for the King at Newbury

and lost a great inheritance and departed for Barbados

in the same ship, by curious chance, in which

he had long before adventured

with the pirates.

Having adventures, pirate overload...that's kids stuff.