Ahoy there nerdy wenches! I can’t believe we almost let International Talk Like A Pirate Day go without mention. It wasn’t that long ago that I was leading pirate games (which included a race to translate sentences written in Pirate slang into modern English) to third grade landlubbers. I’m not sure how  much they liked the aforementioned game, but they loved the hats and stick-on mustaches!

Anyway, Nerdy Chicks Rule seems a great place to salute female pirates like Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and  Grace O’Malley, who claimed pirate fame despite strict rules against allowing females aboard pirate vessels.  Hmmm. While it’s true they were groundbreaking… uh… seabreaking… maybe they weren’t so nerdy. 

But here’s one who is. I have to give a shout out to Princess Bea of Pirate Princess by fellow blogger Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. When I looked on my shelf and saw this book I realized I had almost let the most important pirate day of the year slip by without saluting Bea. She’s quite nerdy, a pampered princess who knows what she wants and has the guts to go after it. But Bea has never lifted a finger in her life, so she has no skills to contribute to a pirate crew. Luckily she discovers a valuable skill that doesn’t involve fingers.  I’ve known Princess Bea ever since she was just a character in a manuscript, before she was discovered by Harper Collins and delivered to the hands of young readers, and I’ve always thought she was great!

When I decided to write this post I called Sudipta and asked her what inspired her to write about a princess turned pirate. She said, “I wanted to write about a character who could do what she wanted no matter how unlikely it seemed.”

I also asked a question my daughter has been wondering. Did Bea get her name because Sudipta’s daughters both have names that begin with B?  Sudipta’s answer: “I named her Bea because it rhymes with Sea.”

Ah well, not every author answer can be inspiring. But Pirate Princess is!

Do you have a favorite pirate term? There are a ton of great piratey words out there. My favorite term: cackle fruit. Know what it is? Here’s a hint: it comes from a chicken.

Sudipta’s favorite term is booty. Actually, she tried to think of a better term as soon as the word was out of her mouth, but couldn’t. To be fair, I think if pirate terms were electable by the public, booty would win!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

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