When I Was a Pirate
Tom Silson and Ewa Poklewska-Koziello
Flying Eye Books

Here is a story that radiates the warmth of intergenerational love.

As a grandfather playfully interacts with his grandchildren, he reminisces about his life as a pirate back in the day and in so doing unearths his sense of adventure and wonder. Remembering sailing upon the high seas, he recalls the sounds of whale songs, those searches for treasure maps, stormy waters withstood thanks to a sturdy ship, and of course, discovering buried treasure as a swashbuckling salt.

With a sprinkling of magic and a sackful of heart in both words and pictures, the story richly imagined through Tom Silson’s rhyming text and Ewa Poklewska-Koziello’s richly patterned, detailed scenes is one that grandads in particular will absolutely love to share with little ones.
“When I was a pirate, we watched night waves shimmer, / As stars reflected on dark seas below. / We cruised cosmic currents, a Milky Way swimmer. / When I was a pirate and the world was aglow.”

Who knows what wonderful memories so doing might conjure up for said grandparents, while for young children, there’s a wealth of creative potential to be unleashed after a shared reading of this.