The Best Swashbuckling Pirate Books for School Kids
As we continue on with our companion reading lists for the Magic Tree House Series Books we have reached the fourth book Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne and have a fun list of Buccaneering, Swashbuckling Fun with our Fiction Pirate Books for School Kids.
Pirate Books for School Kids
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There are so many fantastic books to choose from it’s been a hard choice to find our favourites. We’ve tried to split them up into different sections so you can find the ones to best suit your child’s interest and ability and ones that you fancy reading together or on your own.
Featured Pirate Books for our Magic Tree House Book Based Activities and Resources Series
Pirates Past Noon #4 Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne and Magic Tree House Fact Tracker Pirates
Pirate Picture Books for KIds
Our first selection is for our younger school kids they have fun pictures and are often favourites from before they went to school.
Dirty Joe the Pirate: A True Story by Bill Harley is a fun book with bright illustrations by Jack E. Davis telling the tale of Dirty Joe the pirate that sails the seven seas in search of the stinkiest treasure in the world – SMELLY SOCKS!
Edward and the Pirates by David McPhail, tells the tale of Edward a boy who loves reading. His imagination and this love of reading one day transport him to a pirate and ship and the adventures begin.
Possibly our favourite of these books is The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle, we loved the Jolley Rogers the family of pirates in the book. They move to Dull-on-Sea and Matilda befriends them. But pirates don’t like to be land lovers and soon they head off again and Matilda really misses them. This is a funny book that the kids and I really enjoyed reading together when they were younger. There are other books in the series and these are worth reading as well.
Another favourite is How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long again a fun tale of pirate life and a boy Jeremy Jacobs that decides to join the pirate crew. Another series of books we’ve really enjoyed reading these adventures borrowing the books from the library.
Chapter Books about Pirates for Kids
If your kids like the How to Train Your Dragon series and books then How to be a Pirate by Cressida Cowell features the same characters but with a pirate twist. We enjoyed reading this first aloud and then independently.
After enjoying the Jolley Rogers in the Pirates Next Door book above we enjoyed the Jolley-Rogers Series by Jonny Duddle even more. The first in the series The Jolley-Rogers and the Ghostly Galleon by Jonny Duddle features the same family and fabulous illustrations but is in chapters and perfect to move up towards longer and longer books.
Another fun series of books The Pirate School by Brian James is great to read together for those that are just starting with chapter books. In the first in the series, The Curse of Snake Island by Brain James Pete a pirate in training and the other kids want to prove to the grown-up pirates that they are just as good as them and try and get to the treasure on snake island first. Can they do it before them? As well, as managing to survive the snake that can curse them? Read and find out.
Want to know more about the real pirates then Lives of Pirates: Swashbucklers, Scoundrels (Neighbors Beware) by Kathleen Krull is a book for you. Featuring mini-biographies of some famous pirates this will give you a little more facts than most books in our feature and great for finding out about those that rode the waves.
Travel back in time with Abigail Adams. In Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean by Steve Sheinken, the first lady ventures far from the White House to join the Caribbean Pirates and discover this fun book which has a tiny bit of fact mixed well in with lots of fiction.
Another female pirate – that can’t actually be a pirate because well she is a girl is Hilary in Magic Marks the Spot (Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates) by Caroline Carlson. After being turned away from the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates because she’s a girl she heads off on her own adventures in this fun series of books.
Classic Pirate Books to Read together
There are a couple of classic books that we would recommend and have enjoyed reading when we work on areas of pirates.
Join Captain Hook and his band of pirates in the children’s classic Peter Pan by J M Barrie as he battles against the crocodile as well as Peter and the Lost Boys.
Another children’s classic Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson has stood the test of time. Featuring Long John Silver and the hunt for treasure this is one to read together and enjoy.
More Reading Recommendations for School KIds
Each of these booklists accompanies one of the books in the Magic Tree House Book Series by Mary Pope Osborne.
Ancient Egyptian Books to read alongside Mummies in the Morning, Middle Ages and Medieval Fiction Books for The Knight at Dawn and Dinosaur Fiction Books for Dinosaurs Before Dark.
