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 was not discovered 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

Pirates will often carry their knives in their mouths, although the practice is frowned upon by the American Dental Association.

This is a fun book I purchased for an adult who liked to dress as a pirate for Halloween. Imagine our surprise when his college alma mater was mentioned as a source of information! Great for laughs.

I bought this book as a joke for my husband who loves dressing up like a pirate for costume parties, so he could be more informed. It's hilarious and very entertaining! The illustrations are great too. The book answers all the questions you and your kids have about pirates. We enjoyed the book so much we bought another copy of it for a child we know and he loved it too. I would definitely recommend this book for both adults and children and guarantee you will laugh out loud when reading it.

I bought this book for my 5 year old and it is a little mature for him. There are a lot of words to read on each page and he started to lose interest. It is a hilarious book but better for my 7 and 9 year old.

Ohh, this is a wonderful book. So it might misrepresent actual facts about pirates-soooo what. Do you tell kids that Santas not real? Your kid can look at this book and distinquish fact from fiction. This book is fun, colorful, and creative.(wonderful for children) If your 5-yr old is looking at writing a thesis on the history of pirates for an early admittance to Harvard than buy a different book. Otherwise, this is a colorful piece of young literature for your child. I recommend Lichtenheld's other books too.

If all looking for is a few laughs, this book is worth reading.

However, I have a big problem with this kind of book for kids, and we are seeing more and more of this. Anyone who has kids knows that they usually take things at face value. If an adult or a book tells them something, they believe it.

This book is full of mis-information and jokes that only an adult or a young adult would understand. Younger children will be utterly perplexed by the information presented here.

More and more, I see so-called "children's" books that are marketed towards the ADULTS who read to their children (Hey, it's the adults who are shelling out the money, why not market to the adults?). The kids won't get the jokes. But at least the adults can be entertained while reading to their kids. This mentality is an insult to the child's intelligence. It assumes that the kids can't really process the real facts - that they wouldn't understand the truth.

If your child has a genuine interest in pirates, this book will only confuse them with information about pirates that is outright wrong. It is ANTI-educational.