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Yeah, I've been wondering too. In fact, I've wondered for several years now about the disconnect between the romantic pirate image and the modern day criminals. Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see. Maybe Long John Silver's will change to Red Nose Ruben's, the place of the jolly clown... Oh, no -- clowns can be scary.

HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA !!! Obviously a major source of all good will toward pirates - and a great book.

I've always found pirate children's books a bit paradoxical. I once reviewed a non-fiction "real life pirates" book for SLJ. The books were made for grades 3-6 and although they did not glorify the pirates, I couldn't help pointing out in my review that they did not dwell on the fact that these pirates were criminals and murderers...I get the Pirates of the Caribbean-like appeal of pirate books,and 'talk like a pirate day,' I really do, but regardless of whether they're Long John Silver or today's modern pirates, there's no getting around the fact that they were/are criminals.

New research suggests that the free-wheeling, anti-imperialist ethos of the 18th century Atlantic pirates was critically important in the development of American democratic ideals. (The book "Pirate Utopias" by Peter Wilson covers this territory nicely.) Atlantic pirate ships were staffed with escapees from the horrible British Navy.

In the world of anti-globalization activists -- anti-WTO protesters, for instance -- these Somali pirate attacks have a completely different meaning than that construed by the mainstream media. There are a lot of people cheering these pirates on, worldwide. Of course no-one wants to see sailors killed -- but given that these are some of the poorest people in the world, who the international community -- West, East, Middle Eastern, African -- has completely failed -- living in a stateless region of the world -- well -- there is MEANING here that it's important not to gloss over with the simple words "criminal". Of course they're criminals. Of course I wish the world was fairer, and Somalia hadn't been a pawn in the Cold War tussle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for decades -- a country pumped full of foreign weapons --

The U.S. is complicit in the destruction of Somali society. I made friends with a Somali refugee last year in my master's program. To hear him describe the U.S.'s role in Somalia since World War II -- you would understand why Somali individuals would not perceive an American Flagged Vessel to represent "Good Guys".

Piracy is complicated. It's the flipside of Capitalist Imperialism writ large. It's a real shame that this sort of debate is absent from children's literature, don't ya think? Other than "The Streets Are Free" by Kurusa, published by Annick Press, there's VERY little anti-establishment pro-power-to-the-people lit for kids. Maybe the pro-pirate books are in fact catering to this very gap in the market.

"From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli" --

Why is it that children's literature deals so weakly and ineptly with Thomas Jefferson's war on the "Barbary Pirates" -- the early 19th century analogue to today's Somali rash of robberies on the high seas?

Jefferson believed the the U.S. Marines were entitled to make peace way over by Tripoli on the coast of Libya, in order to secure American shipping lanes... Everything that goes around comes around, evidently. I'm certainly interested to see what the children are taught about all this Somali stuff. Certainly they don't learn much about the Barbary Pirates episode. I haven't seen Barbary Pirates in any picture books, for sure.

Mermaids love pirates.

Truthfully, any trend that's reached it's highest pitch and is over is ok by me. Vampires are you listening?

Sorry for getting all humourlessly political in yesterday's posts. Here's another angle on pirates. "Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor" by Mervyn Peake (recently in and then out of print via Candlewick) was written in 1939 or so. The hilarious subtext is that the pirate ship is home to a cast of homosexual men (including denizens such as Peter Poop who has a wine-cork for a nose).

Could it be that the "Jolly Pirate" in children's literature is yet another cipher/disguise for the Gay Man (otherwise undepictable)? If so, any real-world pirate episodes will have no impact on Jolly Pirates since they share no common subtextual references.

Remember that in Treasure Island all of the pirates are, conspicuously, idiots, murderers, and drunks. The exception, at least to the idiot part, is Long John Silver. And though Stevenson does let Silver slip away in the end -- and lets us enjoy the fact, even -- he never lets us forget that Silver’s a criminal and a murderer, too:

A gentle slope ran up from the beach to the entrance of the cave. At the top, the squire met us. To me he was cordial and kind, saying nothing of my escapade either in the way of blame or praise. At Silver's polite salute he somewhat flushed.
"John Silver," he said, "you're a prodigious villain and imposter — a monstrous imposter, sir. I am told I am not to prosecute you. Well, then, I will not. But the dead men, sir, hang about your neck like mill-stones."
"Thank you kindly, sir," replied Long John, again saluting.

Is Silver the first truly amoral hero/antihero in children’s lit?

My Facebook account page is now filled with my friends patriotically posting links to articles about the Navy successfully shooting three Somali pirates and liberating the kidnapped American captain. All my friends are high-fiving each other online, and expressing pride in the Navy and in President Obama, etc.

I do not doubt the bravery of all concerned, and I'm glad the American captain is safe. But this insulting posture regarding these Somali pirates is just hypocritical. I thought Americans celebrated outrageous bravery in pursuit of the big score! Watch our movies! Watch our TV shows! These Somali pirates apparently have been trying not to kill their hostages, over the past couple of years of piracy, and they have made off with hundreds of millions of dollars in ransoms. Are you telling me that none of them have encountered American dramatic scripts ENCOURAGING this kind of behavior?? Americans LOVE this sort of criminality!

My friends will undoubtedly be happily reading children's books to their kids tonight that celebrate rebelliousness and rule-breaking and derring-do (Robin Hood anyone?) in the face of unjust authority. (How about the people in one of the poorest countries on earth brazenly stealing money from people in the richest country on earth? Sounds like the plot of a popular book to me.)

Robert Louis Stevenson was definitely right on the cutting edge, yes. He was a Scot -- and the British were the bosses of Scotland. Such a man surely was anti-authoritarian.

I love to remind customers that this man wrote "A Child's Garden Of Verses" AS WELL AS "Doctor Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" AS WELL AS "Treasure Island" AS WELL AS "Kidnapped." The guy had astonishing range (he was Jorge Luis Borges's favorite writer)

In contemporary American media culture, if it bleeds it leads. We want stories about ANYONE dying in a big fancy way. We want deadly drama. We are collectively fixated on death as morbidly negative and bad.

But Stevenson could write about John Silver the way he did because there's no morbid fixation there. Bravery might entail death. If you're out there on the sea, without any master to answer to -- you were daring, and that's one of those old-time Pagan Virtues. The Roman way of thinking. (Isaiah Berlin talks about the Pagan Virtues brilliantly in "The Crooked Timber of Humanity." Caesar and Machiavelli were on the same page here.)

Silver was out there, on the edge, and Stevenson approved simply because the character Silver didn't require approval of anyone (least of all his own creator).

Here's Stevenson's famous poem about death -- a stanza of this was put on his gravestone (in Samoa -- he was 49 when he died there of TB):

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.


I think the pirate is an iconic figure in children's literature because he cannot be gotten rid of.

I can't help myself. I'm taking the bait!

The pirates aren’t not killing their hostages out of chivalry. Dead hostages mean there’s nothing to prevent military action against them. The guys are trying to walk the line of stealing as much as they can while not provoking anyone to bring down the hammer. They’re not sticking it to the Man. In this case, they were doing it by commandeering a ship that was transporting relief supplies to Somalia, Uganda, and Kenya. They’re desperate men, in a desperate situation, doing desperate (and, yes, criminal) things. To construct a political message against unjust authority and hypocrisy out of that is wish fulfillment, no matter how bad most American movies are.

Arrrgghh taking the BAIT arrrr you?? Maybe I better wait until I get really piled on by this group before I pull out my heavy weapons (get ready for a lot of appalling references to post-modernist theory....you may wish to spit that hook out of your mouth before I really get going...)

(I do recommend the Isaiah Berlin though, as background reading. Today is a big day for Pagans versus Christians, after all!)

Academic shibboleths, coming astern! I feel nineteen again.

Americans sure do love the bad news. Why monsters prevail as a trend. I think it comes from a cynical focus that I remember starting after the JFK assassination.

Pirates on the poop deck sure beats the so called heros of this business who talk about poop and pissing in their books and in their book presentations. It caters to the lowest common denominator as egos go more out of control and hunger for power grows.

Facebook is a being datamined for all your info, any progressive would be wise to get off it and leave that world of sycophants behind.

I once overheard a funny negotiation between a mother and her four-year-old son who wanted a book about pirates.

Mom: Choose something else. I don't want you to read about pirates.

Kid: Why?

Mom: Because there's too much fighting and stealing in those pirate books.

Kid: But that's what pirates DO!

To the mom's credit, she was persuaded by her son's logic and let him get the pirate book.

Pirates are like dinosaurs. If an Allosaurus emerged from the lake in Prospect Park and started eating strollers like bon bons, sales of How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight would PLUMMET.

On a similar note, I've been wondering how the recent chimp attack in the news would affect Curious George sales. The cute and cuddly factor is definitely tarnished.

i love this book so much!!! it's the most awesome kids against pirates book ever. i like this better than treasure island actually :)

ps: chimp attacks are so in right now. LOL

I started writing a year ago about a fisherman named Percy. The story was for my four year old grandson.
Natural progression led to his arch enemies being written about and they are three pirates. Of course more recently, I have had to ask myself is this ok? My answer is yes. My pirates are ruthless and nasty and not a nice sort, but hey they're ficticious and stupid, they always get caught. (Like in the movies, baddies always getting caught.) Take a look at www.percythefisherman.com
or key percy the fisherman on youtube.
Roy

tactful silence on all sides! WHY/

Welcome Hornbook to Dublin, Ohio:-) If you ever have a business trip out this way, It is not Boston, but it is a great place to visit and we do have a very good children's bookstore:-)

Hope there are no big changes. We love the Hornbook and the blog as it is!

You can still get snarky about a Guild pick, right? If your stars start to correlate with their choices, I'm going to fret.

You can still get snarky about a Guild pick, right? I'm keeping an eye on this -- if your stars start to correlate with their selections, I'm sending you a howler.

Well, Mitali, first we would need a baseline of how our stars have lined up with their choices in the past. Get to it ;-)

JLG sees books--manuscripts--probably six months to a year before we do. Whatever they choose goes automatically to their subscribers--if you subscribe, for example, to JLG's YA novel plan, you'll get a YA novel chosen by JLG every month. Reviews from HB and elsewhere have no effect on this process. The possibility of collusion only comes in after the fact, where the Horn Book could give starred reviews to JLG selections, thus making them look good in some generalized kind of way. Media Source has assured me they have no interest in Horn Book doing this, I imagine because a), it would undermine our value with our subscribers and b) because it would be so transparent as to be worthless.

But the perception a few people have seems to be that a good Horn Book review could make people buy a given book from JLG when in fact this is simply not possible. JLG customers are not buying books--they are buying a service that pre-selects books for them.

thanks for that reassuring explanation

Whew, Roger, thanks. That makes sense. Let freedom ring.

And know, too, what I think this change of ownership does do for the Horn Book. Media Source has resources--financial and otherwise--we could only dream about, and they have deep experience with youth librarians in school and public libraries. They also have a sales force, something HB has never had before. This is a very good deal for us and has my complete enthusiasm.

May I quote these two responses of yours on the Fire Escape? As the news breaks about Brian Kenney taking over at PW, spreading your take might ease any anxiety over our community losses after consolidation.

I'll join you on the Fire Escape anytime, Mitali. Go forth and quote.

Ethel Heins and Bertha Mahoney Miller are rolling in their graves. The Horn gets racier every day.

Now that was funny. Thank you very much!

I thought that's why it was called The Horn Book . . .

(cannot believe I just wrote that)

Awww...I thought it was really funny!! P&P is one of my favorite books.

Yeah, what's your beef with it, Roger? It's parody, and you like Forbidden Broadway. Have you ever read those great summaries of the classics in "How to be ridiculously well read in one evening?"

I HAVE no beef with it. I thought it was funny. And I was trying to be funny but obviously unsuccessfully so.

Well, you do have a character long celebrated for its frankness.

Then I WILL add, frankly, that I find P&P the dullest of Austen's novels. Of course, dull Austen is still miles more interesting than just about anybody else!

Have you read Northanger Abbey?

Apart from the fact that I cannot believe anyone could think Pride and Prejusdice is more dull than Northanger Abbey or Mansfield Park (I mean, come on, Fanny is unbearable), I wanted to add this little morsel to the discussion. Somehow Elizabeth neglected to see it, and was beyond excited to discover it on my facebook page.

You, too, can become a member of Lydia and Kitty's facebook group, 1,000,000 Strong Against Officers Leaving Meryton!

I'm sorry if this is too off topic, but Fanny is wonderful, she's just quiet. Who are the children's book characters who are as controversial as Fanny, I wonder? I am reminded of a mom I know who complained that Bella Swan's self-esteem is too low. My friend didn't think Bella was a good role model for her daughter!

I loved the half of Mansfield Park I finished much more than the two-thirds of Northanger Abbey I did not.

First of all, Jane Twittering? My word, I should think not. Adele on the other hand...

Secondly, it is very clear who is NOT friending Catherine Morland around here.

Thirdly, Sharyn November posted this link on facebook a while back and a few of us had fun playing the same game with Little Women. My favorite was (I believe it was Sharyn's and I'm paraphrasing from memory being unable to access facebook from school) "Amy is now a fan of pickled limes."

I love how it says "Kitty can't stop coughing," with three exclamation marks.

I love all of Jane Austen, but P&P is still the best, IMNSHO.

I missed "Mr. Bingley thinks Mary Bingley has delighted the party long enough."

It's a miserable, cold January day in the DC area with rain pouring down (like it can't be snow!), so I have to thank you for the laugh. I needed it.

Oh, you are all too hard on poor Catherine Morland. She has been one of the few classic heroines to, really, make me laugh out loud. Others have amused, even aroused a smile-- but dear Catherine (or rather, Catherine's narrator) makes me, in the spirit of the discussion, LOL.

I'm late to comment, but have you seen Hamlet?

Let us also then count all the actual writers, the fractured, scraped, but yearning souls who have spent their whole lives crafting a book that now will not find a publishing home because "there is no money left in publishing." She takes from us all, the gift that keeps on giving.

Depending on cover price and discounts, say something in the neighborhood of four million copies?

I'm no fan, but I won't blame Palin for this. This is some mysterious but persistent tic of the industry.

I don't blame Palin, either--I'm just trying to wrap my head around the arithmetic. Wikipedia tells me That The Kite Runner has sold ten million copies, if that gives anyone else some sense of perspective.

Ah yes, I don't mean to blame Palin. I just do grow frustrated. I read so many fine books in manuscript that do not find their place on a bookstore shelf. I read so many fine books that don't find their way into a Barnes and Noble. Culture gets skewed by deals such as these—whether it is Palin or Tina Fey who gets the lopsided deal.

In the end, no writer really benefits from such enormous advances. Charles Frazier, for example, probably would have done so much better—as a writer—if the advance for his second book had been within the realm of appropriate. Money is not the measure of success for most writers. But money wisely distributed across the literary spectrum is necessary to keeping culture alive.

Figure in book-club income, syndication in mags
and/newspapers, paperback rights,and purchases by RNC devotees. All this, added to conventional bookstore sales, should be enough.

But then there are the MOVIE RIGHTS!!

consider he sub rights income: paperback edition, book club edition, syndication in mags and newspapers, movie rights (?) the book should be a goldmine for some lucky publisher - and Palin's agent!

If we assume a $30 cover price (Bill Clinton's MY LIFE was $35, and I don't think she has QUITE the same weight) and a royalty of --oh--12% (not to mention there could be an escalation...), she'd have to sell 2 million just to earn out her advance! (Though I don't think she cares much about building a good history at her publisher.)

Surely her royalty would be more than 12% - more likely 15% and maybe a slide?

What I'm waiting for is the announcement that it will be a children's picture book about an unusual moose who learns that it's okay to be different from all the other moose.

I'm just feeling smart because I got the post title reference right away.

or maybe she can have a career as a talkshow personality. wouldn't it be fun to turn on the radio every day and hear that wonderful syntax?

with antlers that sparkle!

The woman can't even come up with one coherent sentence. Does anybody seriously believe she can write a book? It's vomititious.

I don't care, I intend to keep blaming Palin for EVERYTHING.

Jane

Maybe we should all just stop carrying on about Palin and she will GO AWAY. (Like a naughty child who can see that she's not the center of attention anymore.)