Maritime Mayhem: 5 Pirate Tales for Middle Grade Readers

The Dagger Quick, by Brian Eames
Twelve-year-old Kitto dreams of an adventurous life beyond his seaside community, but a prohibitive clubfoot and a destined career in the family barrel-making business do not pave the path to excitement in seventeenth-century England.  Enter his uncle, Jamaican pirate William Quick, and you bet your breeches drama is in store! Soon, Kitto’s father winds up dead, his stepmother and younger brother are captured by the enemy, and Kitto is enlisted as crewmember aboard his uncle’s pirate ship, the Blessed William. Kitto must find the strength to brave uncharted waters and set his own moral compass amidst this rough and rowdy crowd. Luckily, his page-turning exploits continue in The Dagger X.

The Hook’s Revenge series, by Heidi Schulz
Jocelyn Hook, the only child of Neverland’s infamous Captain Hook, has pirate blood in her veins. The only problem is, the 13-year-old’s wealthy grandfather has sent her off to become a proper member of high society at Miss Eliza Crumb-Biddlecomb’s Finishing School for Young Ladies. In the first book of the series, Hook’s Revenge, Jocelyn receives a letter from her late father in which he implores her to avenge his death. In true Hook fashion, she escapes the shark-infested waters of Miss Eliza’s and heads to the shores of Neverland to fulfill her calling. Determined to take the reins once held by her fearsome papa, the junior buccaneer embarks on a topsy-turvy journey of empowerment as she learns to become the captain of her own ship.

The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series, by Caroline Carlson
Magic Marks the Spot, the first book in a three-novel series, introduces us to plucky Hilary Westfield, an admiral’s daughter who, like Jocelyn Hook, dreams of trading in her fancy finishing school for a pirate ship. When her acceptance letter to The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates is revoked after it is discovered that she is female, Hilary and her talking gargoyle team up with the dread pirate Jasper Fletcher and his scallywags to find a stash of buried loot. On her quest to earn pirate street cred, Hilary meets a mysterious lot of characters and uncovers more intrigue than her plunder-loving heart could have ever imagined.

The Jupiter Pirates series, by Jason Fry
Sibling rivalry can occur in even the most close-knit of clans, but for the Hashoones, a family of privateers in space, the competition focuses less on who wins a game of backyard tag and more on who will succeed their mother, Diocletia, as commander of starship Shadow Comet. As they intercept Earth vessels on behalf of the Jovian Union, a coalition of planetary-moon-dwelling societies, twelve-year-old Tycho, his twin sister, Yana, and their cocky sixteen-year-old brother, Carlo, strive to prove their individual piracy skills as they band together in the face of imminent interplanetary war. Grab The Hunt for the Hydra and Curse of the Iris and hop aboard their starship.

The Map to Everywhere, by Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis
The first book of this enchanting new series centers around two kids from two different worlds and their unwitting quest to find a mystical map. Arizona-based Marrill is casually going about her day when a river and a wizard-helmed pirate ship suddenly materialize before her. Soon she is sailing with the crew on the Pirate Stream, a river that connects every world in creation, in search of the map’s missing pieces. Marill’s secret hope is that if they find the map, the wizard will accompany her home to heal her ailing mother. When the ship arrives in otherworldly Khaznot Quay, Marrill meets Fin, a magical orphan who is on a mission to reunite with his long-lost mom. As they outwit menacing foes and confront dark prophecies, the kids learn that sometimes the only way out of a dilemma comes from digging deep within.
What say you, matey? What are your favorite tales of pirates, privateers and rip-roaring nautical pursuits?