Everything I Know About Pirates
Ahoy there, matey! All buccaneers to the poop deck or ye'll be walkin' the plank! Aaarrgh! Author and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld always wondered why pirates' pants are so raggedy on the bottom edges, and what makes pirates so crabby all the time, and why it is that earrings were macho on pirates way before they became cool for any other guys. So  he decided it was up to him to write the final word on piratedom. This encyclopedia of spectacularly unscientific, unfounded facts about those nasty brigands of the sea will thoroughly satisfy the curiosity of landlubbin' vermin and pirate wannabes alike. Complete with name charts (pick one word from each of three columns to come up with a name like Blind Tooth Willy or One Boot Kidd), diagrams of swashbuckler fashion, and cutaway views of pirate ships, this volume is chock full of unforgettable and indispensable details of the buccaneering life. Did you know, for example, that pirates are very clumsy--why else would they always end up with eye patches and hooks? And the skull and crossbones wasnotdiscovered inside the desk of a seventh-grader in De Kalb, Illinois, as is commonly believed. It was Leonardo "Peg Leg" da Vinci who invented the design. Confused by all this technical lingo? Check out the Official Pirate Glossary in the back. Lichtenheld's hilarious illustrations and outrageous nonsense makes for a delicious reading experience for swashbucklers of all ages. (Ages 4 and older)--Emilie Coulter