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Pirates: Books for Talk Like a Pirate Day

Sep19


Of piratical books there is no end. However, here are a few of my favorites. Here’s a more exhaustive list of pirate fiction.


Picture Books:
Obadiah the Bold by Brinton Turkle. A young Quaker boy on Nantucket Island decides to become a pirate when he grows up, but he’s dissuaded after he’s forced to walk the plank (pretend) by his older siblings. Semicolon review here.

Classics:
The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes. Semicolon review here.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Classic story of the boy, Jim Hawkins, and the pirate, Long John Silver.

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.

Children’s Fiction:
Mystery in the Pirate Oak by Helen Fuller Orton. I used to read Ms. Orton’s mysteries when I was a kid of a girl. Good children’s mystery books.

Captain Kidd’s Cat. The True Chronicle of Wm. Kidd, Gent. and Merchant of New York as narrated by His Ship’s Cat, McDermott, Who ought to know by Robert Lawson. Not as well known as Lawson’s other animal-narrated historical chronicles, Ben and Me and Mr. Revere and I, but this story of Captain Kidd is written in the same style and just as fun and informative. By the way, I think I may be related to Captain Kidd. At least I have some Kidds in my family tree.

Ghost in the Noonday Sun by Sid Fleischman. Oliver FInch, because he was born exactly at midnight, has the ability to see ghosts. And the pirates who kidnap him need his help to to get to a treasure guarded by . . . ghosts, of course. Fleischman wrote lots of funny adventure stories just right for a rollicking good time.

Isle of Swords by Thomas Wayne Batson. I thoroughly enjoyed this pirate tale from last year. Semicolon review here.

Jade by Sally Watson. This one falls in the category of great story but hard to find because it’s out of print. In fact, Sally Watson is an author worth keeping in mind at used book sales and the like. Her books, first published in the 1950’s and 60’s, seem to be available here in reprint editions. Jade is the story of sixteen year old Melanie Lennox, an anti-slavery crusader, who joins the pirates who capture her ship so that she can continue her fight against slavery on the high seas. If anyone has an extra copy of this book lying around, I’ll certainly take it off your hands. I have fond memories of it from my childhood.

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome.

Young Adult Fiction:
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. Air pirates in an alternate world. Semicolon review here.

Pirates! by Celia Rees, reviewed by Carrie at Mommy Brain. YA fiction about a couple of girl pirates and about the evils of slavery.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi.

Nonfiction:
Sea Queens: Women Pirates from Around the World by Jane Yolen, reviewed by Matt at The Book Club Shelf.

Celebrate The Fourth of July

Jul4

Calling all U.S. citizens, how will you celebrate the Fourth of July? We always have a full day: parade in the morning, home to cool off, and fireworks in the afternoon/evening. This year our church is handing out bottles of water for parade-goers. What will you be doing? How does your church or your family celebrate our nation’s founding?

Some picture books for July 4th:
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Paul Revere’s Ride.Illustrated by Ted Rand. Dutton, 1990.
Dalgliesh, Alice.The 4th of July Story. Alladin, 1995. (reprint edition)
Spier, Peter. The Star-Spangled Banner. Dragonfly Books, 1992.
Bates, Katharine Lee. America the Beautiful. Illustrated by Neil Waldman. Atheneum, 1993.
Devlin, Wende. Cranberry Summer.

Also on July 4th:
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804. Advice from Nathaniel Hawthorne on Blogging.

Stephen Foster was born on July 4, 1826. The PBS series American Experience has an episode on the life of Stephen Foster, author of songs such as Beautiful Dreamer and Oh! Susanna.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day, July 4, 1826, fifty years after adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
Adams’ last words were: “Thomas Jefferson still survives.”
Jefferson’s last words: “Is it the fourth””

Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872. He is supposed to have said, “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it,” and “I have never been hurt by anything I didn’t say.”
Also, “we do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.”
Amen to that.
More on Calvin Coolidge and the Fourth of July from A Gracious Home.

The poem “America the Beautiful” by Katharine Lee Bates was first published on July 4, 1895.

Poetry and Fine Art Friday: The Flag.

You could make your own fireworks for the Fourth of July. Engineer Husband really used to do this when he was a young adolescent, and I can’t believe his parents let him. He tried to make nitroglycerine once, but he got scared and made his father take it outside and dispose of it! Maybe you should just read about how fireworks are made and then imagine making your own.

On July 4, 1970 Casey Kasem hosted “American Top 40” on radio for the first time. I cannot tell a lie; in high school I spent every Sunday afternoon listening to Casey Kasem count down the Top 40 hits of the week.

I remember the Bicentennial celebration in 1976. On the Fourth of July, 1976, I was on my way to a youth evangelism conference in Dallas/Fort Worth. For a long time after that, through college, I had the T-shirt with bicentennial logo to prove it. Date yourself; where were you in July 1976?

James M. Kushner at Mere Comments recommends David McCullough’s book 1776 for Fourth of July reading. I haven’t read it yet, even though I added it to my list last year at this time.

Last but not least, via Ivy’s Coloring Page Search Engine, I found this page of free coloring sheets for the 4th of July. We liked the fireworks page.

Go celebrate with your own fireworks–or watch some—or something. Happy Independence Day!

Note: this post was edited and reposted from last July.

Canada Day: Reading Through Canada

Jul1

July 1 is Canada Day. Here are some suggestions, mostly fiction, if you’re ready to celebrate with a good book:

Picture Books:

Bannatyne-Cugnet, Jo. A Prairie Alphabet. Illustrated by Yvette Moore.
Carney, Margaret. At Grandpa’s Sugar Bush. Illustrated by Janet Wilson.
Carrier, Roch. The Hockey Sweater. Illustrated by Sheldon Cohen.
Gay, Marie-Louise. Stella, Queen of the Snow. Illus. Groundwood, 2000.
Ellis, Sarah. Next Stop! Illus. by Ruth Ohi. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000.
Harrison, Ted. A Northern Alphabet.
Kurelek, William. A Prairie Boy’s Winter.
Kurelek, William. A Prairie Boy’s Summer.
McFarlane, Sheryl. Jessie’s Island. Illustrated by Sheena Lott. Orca Book Publishers, 2005.
Service, Robert. The Cremation of Sam McGee. Illustrated by Ted Harrison.

Children’s Fiction:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, of course and all its sequels. Essential Canadiana.
Our Canadian Girl and Dear Canada series.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Elijah of Buxton. Semicolon review here.
Hobbs, Will. Far North.
Mowat, Farley. Lost in the Barrens.
Mowat, Farley. Owls in the Family.
Stanbridge, Joanne. The Leftover Kid. Northern Lights, 1997.

YA and Adult Fiction:

Craven, Margaret. I Heard the Owl Call My Name.
Freedman, Benedict and Nancy. Mrs. Mike.
Mitchell, W.O. Who Has Seen the Wind?

I haven’t read all of these, but I plan to, whenever I can manage to find time for a Canada Project.

Ian McKenzie’s Top Twenty Ways to Tell If You’re Canadian.

More Canadian books, mostly for kids by Becky at Farm School.

Celebrating Literary Canada at Chasing Ray earlier this year.

Any more Canadian book suggestions?

Celebrate the Day: June 20, 2008

Jun19

World Refugee Day was established by the UN General Assembly in 2000 to promote awareness of the vast numbers of refugees worldwide.

Some children’s/YA books about immigrants and refugees:
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate. Semicolon review here.

Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney. I read this book several months ago, but never reviewed it. It was great story of a family in the U.S. who sponsor a refugee family only to find out that the refugee family is hiding some dangerous secrets.

Children of the River by Linda Crews.

Nonfiction for adults about refugees:
Behind the Burqa: Our Life in Afghanistan and How We Escaped to Freedom by “Sulima” and “Hala” as told to Batya Swift Yasgur. Semicolon review here.

Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishamel Beah.

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi. Semicolon review here.

More June Celebrations, Links, and Birthdays.

Celebrate the Day: June 19, 2008

Jun19

Born on this date:

Blaise Pascal, b.1623. Thoughts on Peter Kreeft’s commentary on Pascal’s Pensees:
Semicolon interacts with Pascal on Order.
Sinners Need Silence, and Ultimately A Savior
Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me.
Animal or Angel?
Vanity, Vanity, All Is Vanity
Every Day in Every Way
Hobgoblins or Habits
I need to finish this series. I need to finish the book.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Prince of Preachers, b. 1834.

Some Texans celebrate Juneteenth on June 19th each year. It’s a celebration of the end of slavery, and a typical Juneteenth celebration usually involves picnics, parades, prayer services, barbecue, watermelon, and red soda pop. For a fictional take on this holiday, see Ann Rinaldi’s young adult novel Come Juneteenth.

Celebrate the Day: June 17, 2008

Jun17

Birthday of artist M.C. (Maurits Corneille) Escher, b. 1898.

Amazingly enough, I decided today to declare this week to be G.K. Chesterton Week at Semicolon, not because it’s Chesterton’s birthday. That was back in May. But I am reading Chesterton’s novel, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare for a summer book club that Eldest Daughter started in order to amuse herself and some friends. And the June selection for my book club, Biblically Literate, (which, due to all the crises in my life, is not going so well) is another Chesterton book, Manalive. For a long time I’ve wanted to re-read Chesterton’s classic apologetic work, Orthodoxy, and Chesterton Week is my excuse to do so. And, finally, for Poetry Friday, which will be hosted here at Semicolon on Friday, I plan to post something poetic by Mr. Chesterton.

Now, you’re supposed to ask: why did you use the word “amazingly” in the last paragraph? Well, serendipitously, it seems to me that M.C. Escher and Gilbert Keith Chesterton are kindred spirits. They both deal in enigma and paradox and near-nightmare. They both lived at about the same time.
Chesterton might have hated Escher’s art of illusion and reality, but I prefer to think they would have found much common ground.

Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling? —M.C. Escher

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling. —G.K. Chesterton

Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it’s in my basement… let me go upstairs and check. —M.C. Escher

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. —G.K. Chesterton

We adore chaos because we love to produce order. —M.C. Escher

Don’t they sound as if they were separated at birth? I wonder if they ever met?

Celebrate the Day: June 4, 2008

Jun4

Aesop’s Day. Here’s a fable for today. I particularly liked this one since you get three morals for the price of one (story).

A Labourer lay listening to a Nightingale’s song throughout
the summer night. So pleased was he with it that the next night
he set a trap for it and captured it. “Now that I have caught
thee,” he cried, “thou shalt always sing to me.”

“We Nightingales never sing in a cage.” said the bird.

“Then I’ll eat thee.” said the Labourer. “I have always heard
say that a nightingale on toast is dainty morsel.”

“Nay, kill me not,” said the Nightingale; “but let me free,
and I’ll tell thee three things far better worth than my poor
body.” The Labourer let him loose, and he flew up to a branch of
a tree and said: “Never believe a captive’s promise; that’s one
thing. Then again: Keep what you have. And third piece of advice
is: Sorrow not over what is lost forever.” Then the song-bird
flew away.

Today is also the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, June 4, 1989. I realized in thinking about it that none of my children, not even the 22 year old, are old enough to remember what happened at Tiananmen Square when the Chinese students tried to gain some measure of reform and freedom through peaceful protest. 300-800 of the protesters probably died on June 4, 1989, and although the government has never told foreign journalists what happened to him nor has he ever been definitively identified, “Tank Man” probably died, too, shortly after this picture was taken on June 5th.

Chinese citizens in China who search on google for any information on the massacre or the protests at Tiananmen Square are greeted with no information and this message:

“According to the local laws, regulations and policies, part of the searching result is not shown.”

More June Celebrations, Links, and Birthdays

Celebrate the Day: June 2, 2008

Jun2

Author birthdays:

Thomas Hardy (b.1840)
Gautami Tripathy reviews Tess of the d’Ubervilles.
Dani Torres reviews Tess.
And here’s Bonnie’s (Dwell in Possibility)take on the same book.
My favorite Thomas Hardy novel is Far From the Madding Crowd; he and George Eliot remind of me one another. In fact, if I don’t think carefully I get their novels confused: both feature nineteenth century English country towns and farms, bad things happening to good and bad people, fallen women, and love entanglements.

Barbara Pym (b.1913).
Mary at Glass of Blessings reviews Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym.
Semicolon review of Pym’s Excellent Women.

Paul Galdone (b.1914).
I included several folk tale/fairy tale books written and illustrated by Paul Galdone in my preschool curriculum, Picture Book Preschool, because I like his bold colorful illustrations. In my experience, preschoolers find Mr. Galdone’s work both accessible and inviting.

Norton Juster (b.1929). I love Juster’s book The Phantom Tollbooth. I wish I had time to go back and re-read it today.

More June Celebrations, Links, and Birthdays.

Mother’s Day

May10

These are some opinions about mommy.

  • “She’s good.”
  • “She’s nice.”
  • “She likes good stuff.”
  • “She’s practical.”
  • “She’s my mom.”

What I think is good about mommy is that “She reads books!” and thats what I like about her.

I made this poem for her.

Mommy

Who is the person loves me so much? Mommy. 
Who would NEVER leave me so she go could talk to a Dutch? It's Mommy. 
Who would give me a dollar if I relay needed it, 
because if I didn't have one I would not be able to buy that toy that just came out and all my friends have it AND it's the only one left! 
It's definitely M-O-M-M-Y.

Hope you like it mommy and have a great mother’s day!

Happy Mother’s Day!