What to read when your child loves pirates

Pirates. What is with this obsession? It is not just my children. Pirates are trendy. Is it the mustaches? The curved swords? The fun way they talk? Or their cool tattoos? Whatever it is, my four year old gets it. He loves pirates. So, when we go to the library, what does he find, a pirate book. Of course. Not all library books we pick up willy-nilly are winners, but this one makes our "favorites" list!

Bad Pirate by Kari-Lynn Winters is adorable. 

The scurvy sea-dogs in this story are, actually, dogs, which makes it that much more fun. The book's refrain is catchy: "To be a good pirate yez got to be saucy... yez got to be bold... but most of all yez got to be selfish." By the end of the story, the refrain changes from "selfish" to "selfless" providing a great jumping off point for discussing selfish versus selfless behavior. We even took the discussion one step further and brainstormed ways we could be selfless pirates. And then, because we are saucy (aye!), bold (aye!), and selfless (aye!), we actually did our little random act of kindness...

dressed as pirates.

Of course.

What are your favorite pirate books?