A Pirate’s Life for Thee | #CYBILS2024 Book List

pirate books 2024

Did we go a little overboard with this collection of book choices? Yes. Yes we did.

But look at these treasures! Landlubbers and seafarers alike are sure to find something in this xx of seaworthy tales from nonfiction board books to mythical serpents of Filipino folklore (YA Speculative).

  • Perfect your pirate voice!
  • Nod off to sleep with narwhals and guillemots, minkes and belugas.
  • Meet Robert Small, an enslaved man who, in 1862, commandeered a Confederate ship to secure liberation for himself and hsi family.
  • Sail upon the deep blue sea and dive deep into the briny to explore what lies - and lives - beneath.
  • Spend 24 days in the ocean's twilight zone.
  • Battle a sea serpent (and other aqua-creatures).
  • Learn the art (and science) of mapmaking.
  • and more!

Even the surliest teen will don a fine pirate voice and an "arghh" with these fun, informative, and suspenseful stories! Avast! Get ye' to your favorite bookseller to grab these riches for young sailors, marine scientists, and pirates in training.


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samantha smee pirateImagebedtime storymapmaker book

Ahoy! by Sophie Blackall
Freedom on the Sea: The True Story of the Civil War Hero Robert Smalls and His Daring Escape to Freedom by Michael Boulware Moore, Bryan Collier (Illustrator)
Elementary Nonfiction nominee
Reading Age: 4 to 8
Never, Ever, Ever Ask a Pirate to a Party by Clare Helen Welsh, Anne-Kathrin Behl (Illustrator)
Fiction Picture Book submission
Reading Age: 4 to 8
Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol
Elementary/Middle-Grade Graphic Novel nominee
Reading Age: 10 to 14
Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life by M.C. Dingman
Elementary/Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction submission
Reading Age: 9 and Up (per customers)
Sea Snooze bySarabeth Holden,Emma Pedersen(Illustrator)
Fiction Picture Book submission
Reading Age: 3 to 5
The Serpent Rider by Yxavel Magno Diño
Elementary/Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction nominee
Reading Age: 8 to 11
The Shape of Things: How Mapmakers Picture Our World by Dean Robbins,  Matt Tavares (Illustrator)
Elementary Nonfiction nominee
Reading Age: 4 to 8
Shipwrecked!: Diving for Hidden Time Capsules on the Ocean Floor by Martin W. Sandler
Middle-Grade Nonfiction nominee
Reading Age: 10 to 14
Somewhere in the Deep by Tanvi Berwah
Young Adult Speculative Fiction submission
Reading Age: 14 to 18
Tell Me About Oceans by Lisa Varchol Perron, Jennifer Falkner (Illustrator)
Board Book nominee
Reading Age: 3 to 5
A Window into the Ocean Twilight Zone: Twenty-Four Days of Science at Sea by Michelle Cusolito
Middle-Grade Nonfiction nominee
Reading Age: 10 to 12

map maker
ahoy
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never invite a pirate
so-much-slime
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World of rot
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