By Melinda Long
A boy at the beach gets recruited by a real pirate crew to help bury their treasure, and finds out being a pirate is all fun until bedtime.
Jeremy Jacob is building a sandcastle at the beach when a pirate ship pulls right up to shore and Braid Beard's crew asks him to come aboard. They need a digger, someone to help bury their treasure, and Jeremy is their man. So off he sails. And at first it is the best thing ever: no manners, no vegetables, no washing, and you get to say 'Arrr' as loud as you like. But then night falls, and it turns out pirates don't tuck you in, and they don't read you a bedtime story, and there's nobody to kiss you goodnight. Jeremy starts to think maybe home wasn't so bad after all. The crew ends up burying their treasure in the one perfect hiding spot: his own backyard.
For a child who has gone fully pirate-mad, this is the pure hit of the fantasy: a real pirate ship, a real crew, and a child their age right in the middle of it. It's loud and silly and made for reading aloud, but there's a warm turn at the end when the adventure runs into bedtime and Jeremy misses his own bed. That little pang of homesickness is what makes it more than just a romp, and it's why it lands with the littlest fans without a scary page in it. If it clicks there's a sequel, Pirates Don't Change Diapers, waiting.