Title: “How I Became a Pirate”
Author: Melinda Long
Illustrator: David Shannon
Publisher and Year: Scholastic Inc. 2003
Number of Pages: 32
Tags: Fiction, Friendship,Adventure, 2-3, 4-5, Stephanie Rudi
Genre: Fiction
Analysis: “How I Became a Pirate” is a fun adventure in which a kid realizes being a pirate is cool, but maybe not all it’s cracked up to be. The boy lives with the pirates and enjoys it at first, but he doesn’t like the gross parts of their lifestyle. In the end, he helps them bury their treasure in the backyard and they all get back on their ship and the boy stays home.
This book is a window into a fun, kid-friendly version of a pirate’s life. Perceptually, we think that the child is having a great time with some pirate friends and that he goes back to his house at the end. From a structural perspective, the parents of the child are too busy to notice that he has gone off with the pirates. The pirates invite this random boy to be a part of their crew which is odd. In an ideological sense, the book is telling the reader that it’s okay to have fun and avoid responsibilities sometimes, but don’t make a habit of it or let it be your whole life. The picture book codes show the parents as being unimportant because they have diminishing returns, and the pirates are big while the boy is small to show how strong, powerful, and somewhat frightening they are. In the end the boy is shown above them which gives him the power.
