What do you think would be the biggest advantage to being a female pirate, as opposed to a male pirate?
I think I'll pass on that one! Suffice it to say that Anne Bonny and Mary Reade (two real female pirates) escaped hanging because they both were pregnant.
Throughout the novel, Nancy sails to many ports on four continents. What's your favourite means of travel? What city or country would you love to visit (or revisit)?
I love travelling – any and all forms of transport. There are many countries I'd like to visit – and I'd love to go back to New York.
You received your college degree in history and politics. How do you think your education has informed your writing?
Not sure about the politics, but the history part definitely. Not only is it an abiding and continuing interest, but doing a degree means I learned how to go about research without wasting too much time.
Describe your research style. How much did you know about seafaring lives of the seventeen hundreds before writing this novel? How much did you draw from your own imagination?
I do lots of reading, visit places if possible and look things up on the Internet. I tend to do a lot of preliminary work so I know where to find things as I go along. I knew nothing about sailing ships and not much about seafaring before I started, so I had to find it all out. You can't leave anything factual to the imagination – only things about people's thoughts and feelings. If you don't know, you can bet someone out there will, and if you get it wrong or make it up, they will let you know!
Speaking of imagination, did you ever play pirates when you were little?
I certainly did! I used to draw pirate ships as well.
Pirates toast youth and freedom. Do you have a favourite toast?
One of their other toasts was to 'a short life and a merry one'. Not so much the former, but certainly the imagination – only things sounds good to me.
*You seem to have an interest in the supernatural. Do you ever feel that you have psychic powers? Do you believe that some people do?
I am interested in the supernatural, and it figures in quite a few of my books, but you don't have to actually believe in something in order to use it in fiction. I don't think I'm psychic, but I can own to one or two spooky experiences, as most people can. I'm not sure I know what psychic means. I do think some people are extremely intuitive and sensitive to tiny changes in mood and atmosphere. Maybe that is what being psychic is.
* During your speaking engagements at schools, what differences do you observe between youngsters in England and those in the US? What do your readers want to know about you?
When I first spoke in the US, I was impressed by how similar the audiences were to those I was used to in the UK. Even down to the questions they asked, which are:
Where do you get your ideas from?
All over
How many books have you written?
Nineteen altogether
How much money do you make?
Not enough
* Where do you do your writing?
I have a study and I do most of my writing there. It is a big room, and full of books, papers, files and all the things I collect when I'm working on a book. I'm not a very tidy person, so it tends to be a bit of a mess.
* Are any of your characters an extension of yourself?
I guess they all are in the imagination – only things about what you don't know. But they soon change and grow away from me, or whomever they are based on, and become themselves. If they don't do that, they aren't going to be any good and will have to be scrapped.
* Among your books, do you have a favourite?
Even if I have, I would the imagination – only things other books would get upset.
*These questions and answers were originally published in the Daily Oakland Press in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
READING GROUP GUIDE
AND ACTIVITIES FOR Pirates!
Pirates!
1. In Pirates! the narrator is a young English woman named Nancy Kington. Nancy and her companion, Minerva, are loosely based on two real women pirates: Mary Read and Anne Bonny. Why do you think these women, fictional and real, became pirates? If you lived during this time period, would you adopt such a life?
2. What does Bartholome mean when he tells Nancy, 'I put my faith in stones' (p. 138) and encourages her to do the same? Does she abide by this rule? Do you think it is better to put your faith in stones or in people?
3. Why do you think the author wrote Pirates! from Nancy's point of view? How might the book differ if told in the third person or another character's voice?
Related activity: Pick a scene from the book and rewrite it in the voice of Minerva, Broome or Bartholome.
4. Nancy's brothers treat her like a commodity, attempting to trade her to Bartholome in exchange for wealth and land. How does Nancy's understanding of family change after she meets Minerva? What is the important bond that connects the two girls?
5. The story is filled with tense moments. When were you most fearful for Nancy? For Minerva?
6. Nancy and Minerva often dress as men to hide their true identities. Do you think these costumes give the girls courage they would not otherwise have? Have you ever donned a costume and pretended to be someone else? How did it make you feel?
Related activity: Sketch what your outfit would look like if you were a pirate.
7. Do you think Nancy would have fared better if she disposed of the ruby necklace in Jamaica as Phillis advised, or do you agree with her decision to keep the stones for their great monetary worth? In your opinion, what does the ruby necklace represent? Does this meaning change by the end of the story? How?
8. Nancy's father owns ships involved in the slave trade, sometimes called the triangular trade. What are Nancy's personal views on slavery? Compare Nancy's upbringing as an English merchant's daughter to Minerva's background as a plantation slave, and describe how these backgrounds influence the decisions both girls make as pirates.
9. Nancy's journey leads her from England to Jamaica, America to Africa. As she traverses the Atlantic Ocean, Nancy encounters many different people in many different ports. If you could sail anywhere in the world, where would you go? Why?
Related activity: Draw a map charting Nancy's adventure.
10. Nancy admires Minerva's ability to hide her fears in the face of danger. Do you think a calm exterior is an advantage in battle? Have you ever been in a situation where you had to swallow your fears in order to accomplish a goal? Did you react more like Nancy or Minerva?
11. Were the girls brave to become pirates, or just desperate? What is the difference?
12. Celia Rees looked to old ballads for the book's inspiration, especially for the love story between Nancy and William. Do you have a favourite love song? Is there any particular music that ignites your imagination?
Related activity: Play a piece of classical music or an instrumental song without any words. As you listen, try writing a story to accompany the music. Pay attention to changes in volume, pitch and tempo. What might the plot of this story be? The tone? Does the music convey excitement, longing, fear, contentment? If it were a story, would it have a happy ending?
13. Near the end of the book, Nancy must make a difficult decision: should she leave Minerva and head back to England in search of William? What does she decide to do, and why? Have you ever had to say good-bye to someone you loved? How did you cope?
14. Nancy and Minerva are best friends. Describe your best friend and why he or she would or would not make a good pirate.
15. Nancy narrates the book from a ship sailing for England, unsure what the future will hold for her. Do you think she finds William and lives happily ever after?
Related activity: What if the book ended on land instead of at sea? Write one last chapter of Pirates! relating what happens when Nancy arrives in England at the end of her voyage.
Celia Rees
is the bestselling and award-winning author of many books for young
readers, including Sorceress and Witch Child. A former English teacher, she now spends her time writing, talking to readers in schools and libraries and teaching creative writing. Celia lives in England with her husband and has a grown daughter. Learn more about Celia at www.celiarees.co.uk.
Author's note
It is rare to be able to say, to the hour and day, exactly when a book began. This one started as an aside in an e-mail to my editor, Sarah Odedina, on an otherwise different matter. The initial remark was entirely frivolous, but her enthusiasm was as great as mine, and after three exchanges I'd agreed to write a book about a girl who becomes a pirate. It seemed that the idea had leapt, fully fledged, from this serendipitous exchange, but as I thought more about it, I realised that it had been there all the time, stored away from when I was about ten and spent my time drawing pirate ships and dreaming of lives more exciting than mine. There was a song, Sweet Folly Oliver that we had learnt at school. Some of the lines stuck in my mind.
...a sudden strange fancy came into her head. Neither father or mother would make her false prove, She would list for a soldier and follow her love ...
I remember thinking what a truly splendid idea, how remarkably daring and bold, and how brave and courageous of her to think of it, and how utterly romantic. I have loved ballads ever since then, and went to my record and CD collection to find the songs about sailors and their sweethearts, shipwrecks, strange magic ships, girls who dressed as boys and became sailors or soldiers to follow their hearts and destinies. Ballads gave me the spirit of the time (for my list see www.celiarees.co.uk), but I also went to contemporary writers. Above all, Daniel Defoe. I am most indebted to him and his A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, written under the pseudonym of Captain Johnson. This book told me almost all I needed to know, but I also read the work of modern historians who are rediscovering the lives of the sailors, slaves, rebels, radicals and the real Polly Olivers who made up the world I wished to recreate.
My reading can also be found at www.celiarees.co.uk, but reading is only part of it. I owe a debt of thanks to many people, in different measures. To my husband Terry, for his patient listening, his measured enthusiasm and careful reading. To my daughter, Catrin, who accompanied me to Bath, and on an exhaustive and exhausting walking tour of her adopted city of Bristol as, on a very hot day, we tried to find traces of the world Nancy had once inhabited. To Bristol art galleries and museums, for their wonderful collections of paintings and artefacts from the period, to Julia Griffiths-Jones, for drawing the necklace for me, and to David and Jenny Preston, for bringing back spices. I would also like to thank my agent, Rosemary Sandberg, and others for entering into the spirit of the book and letting me borrow what I would. This book is for all of them, and for everyone who ever dreamt of being a pirate.
PRAISE FOR
Pirates!
An American Library Association
Best Book for Young Adults
An International Reading Association
Young Adult Choice
A VOYA Top Shelf for Middle School Readers Book
A Book Sense Top Ten Children's Pick
A YALSA Teens' Top Ten Pick
A Kentucky Bluegrass Awards Reading List Book
* "Rees evokes the times with stunning precision. . . . She tells a riveting, full-speed adventure filled with girl-powered action, magic, and love, even as it explores the brutality and horror of dark historical times."
—Booklist, starred review
* "A rip-roaring adventure with an
engaging female heroine."
—School Library Journal, starred review
"Robust and romantic." —San Francisco Chronicle
Copyright © 2003 by Celia Rees
Flag illustration copyright © 2003 by Eleanor Taylor
First published by Bloomsbury Publishing 2003
Electronic edition published in 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Bloomsbury, New York, London, and Berlin
Distributed to the trade by Iloltzbrinck Publishers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publieation Data
Rees, Celia.
Pirates! / Celia Rees.
p. cm.
Summary: In 1722, after arriving with her brother at the family's Jamaican plantation where she is to be married off, sixteen-year-old Nancy Kington escapes with her slave friend, Minerva Sharpe. and together they become pirates traveling the world in search of treasure.
eISBN: 978-1-59990-416-0
[1. Pirates—Fiction. 2. Blacks—Jamaica—Fiction. 3. Slavery—Fiction. 4. Jamaica—History—18th century—Fiction. 5. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 6. Sea stories.] 1. Title.
PZ7.R25465 Pi 2003[Fie]—de212003051861
Bloomsbury Publishing, Children's Books, U.S.A.
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Celia Rees, Pirates!
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