This book describes the life of a pirate, named simply Bob, whose job is to cut the steering cables and cripple the ships he and his shipmates will loot.

Bob is not entirely happy with his pirate’s life. Although he has been successful in amassing treasure and has friends upon his ship, he recognizes that because pirates are outlaws and greedy for treasure, he cannot completely trust anyone. Lasky explores Pirate Bob’s problems with being a pirate through telling the story of his ship attacking another. While providing her audience with a fast-paced adventure, Lasky gives us just enough information about Bob’s doubts to explain why being a pirate may not be the best life in the world. Clark’s highly detailed, colorful illustrations do an especially good job portraying Bob’s scar from a previous fight and his friend, Yellow Jack’s, scurvy to contribute to the overall message that living outside the law is not an ideal life. This picture book contains a relatively large amount of text per page and has the potential of losing the interest of younger readers, though the detail of the illustrations has the potential to hold interest for a longer period of time. Given the amount of text and some of the more mature themes, however, this book is better suited for children in first and second grade, and will best capture the attention of those who have some interest in pirates. ( )

The book jacket calls this story an "honest" tale of a pirate's life. I think that's a good description because the author includes realistic details about pirate culture. For example, Pirate Bob has a long scar on his nose (from a previous fight) that aches. His best friend has scurvy, which is why he's yellow. Yellow Jack wonders if Pirate Bob is a true friend or just interested in his buried treasure. Pirate Bob wonders when he will be truly happy---when will he have real friends? when will he have enough money to stop the dangerous business of pirating? The storyline also includes some realistic details about how the pirates attack the English ship and cripple it to force its captain to surrender. Without the humorous and fun illustrations, the book might be kind of scary.

Children enjoy pirates, and this book is a nice one for giving some real information but keeping it light enough for a read out loud. September 19th is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. I have a friend who celebrates this every year! A library could celebrate the day too (or maybe do pirate week or month) with a book display, read out louds, and then teaching children some pirate sayings. The library could have an easy arts and crafts too as part of the story time activities.

If the book is used with older children, they might be able to research some of the boat names, other pirates, and issues (like scurvy) mentioned in the book to learn more details about real pirates and their experiences. This could work in schools with a unit on colonial exploration. The English ship robbed in the story is taking money and supplies to its colonies.