Overview
Pirates! The word that used to strike fear in the hearts of sailors has now struck gold for Disney through its Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise and theme park ride. Pirates have overrun pop culture in everything from children's toys to the recent "Talk like a pirate" day phenomenon. Pop culture chronicler George Beahm, in association with the newly launched Pirates Magazine, traces the rise of the pirate craze and separates pirate fact from fiction. Bridging the gap between children's books and academic historical texts, Buccaneers and Pirates of the Caribbean features a reader-friendly, sound-bite format covering all aspects of pirate life as well as the folklore surrounding the notorious mariners.Synopsis
Pirates! The word that used to strike fear in the hearts of sailors has now struck gold for Disney through its Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise and theme park ride. Pirates have overrun pop culture in everything from children's toys to the recent "Talk like a pirate" day phenomenon. Pop culture chronicler George Beahm, in association with the newly launched Pirates Magazine, traces the rise of the pirate craze and separates pirate fact from fiction. Bridging the gap between children's books and academic historical texts, Buccaneers and Pirates of the Caribbean features a reader-friendly, sound-bite format covering all aspects of pirate life as well as the folklore surrounding the notorious mariners.
VOYA
Those wannabe swashbucklers who are dying to wear black eyeliner and plunder the nearest town are sure to greet the arrival of this book with cries of "huzzah!" Beahm's encyclopedic compendium, published a month prior to the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, contains nearly everything that readers want to know about pirates-and possibly a few things that they do not. The first section explores pirate myths and folklore, addressing the historical accuracy of the Disney movie series with such questions as, "Was there such a thing as cursed Aztec gold?" Section Two, A Pirate's Life for You, provides readers with all the details: how to speak like a pirate, how to dress like a pirate, even a year's worth of pirate festivals to attend. Appendixes of pirate books, movies, and Web sites provide for those hungering for more. Beahm strives to make the historical information as entertaining as possible and succeeds, educating readers even as his book seems superficially like an unofficial guide to the Disney franchise. But the effort to be all-encompassing occasionally leaves young adult readers marooned; genuine period costumes costing hundreds of dollars, pirate-themed cruises, Disney vacations in a pirate penthouse seem intended for an entirely different audience. Readers passionate about the Disney movies and those who cannot get enough of pirates and their lore, will find this book an entertaining and informative read and may overlook those extras intended for an older audience with more treasure to squander.
Editorials
VOYA -
Those wannabe swashbucklers who are dying to wear black eyeliner and plunder the nearest town are sure to greet the arrival of this book with cries of "huzzah!" Beahm's encyclopedic compendium, published a month prior to the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, contains nearly everything that readers want to know about pirates-and possibly a few things that they do not. The first section explores pirate myths and folklore, addressing the historical accuracy of the Disney movie series with such questions as, "Was there such a thing as cursed Aztec gold?" Section Two, A Pirate's Life for You, provides readers with all the details: how to speak like a pirate, how to dress like a pirate, even a year's worth of pirate festivals to attend. Appendixes of pirate books, movies, and Web sites provide for those hungering for more. Beahm strives to make the historical information as entertaining as possible and succeeds, educating readers even as his book seems superficially like an unofficial guide to the Disney franchise. But the effort to be all-encompassing occasionally leaves young adult readers marooned; genuine period costumes costing hundreds of dollars, pirate-themed cruises, Disney vacations in a pirate penthouse seem intended for an entirely different audience. Readers passionate about the Disney movies and those who cannot get enough of pirates and their lore, will find this book an entertaining and informative read and may overlook those extras intended for an older audience with more treasure to squander.School Library Journal
Gr 5-7
This is not an official Disney publication, but it might as well be, as barely a page goes by without references to the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, their props, characters, spin-off products, or theme-park rides. Swelling his narrative with fluff ("Was it bad luck to have a woman on board?") and occasionally losing coherence (pirate ladies should "be loyal to your true love. You either will . . . or will not"), the author wanders from past to present, history to fantasy, then closes with extensive annotated lists of pirate-themed books, films, festivals, and purveyors of pirate apparel and gear, along with a lengthy true/false quiz ("4. A poop deck is where pirates went to the bathroom at sea"), a visit with the author of an adult pirate novel, and more. Illustrations range from posters to small color photos of intricately detailed ship models. There's plenty of information here, but it's thrown together, thoroughly commercialized, and aimed more at reenactors and vacation planners than young pirate fans.
—John PetersCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.