The Mediterranean and Aegean seas were home to the pirates of Ancient Greece.
The Aegean was full of tiny islands where pirates could easily hide their ships. In Ancient Greek times ships did not cross the open ocean, so all the pirates had to do was wait by the coast for trade ships to come past.
Pirates also attacked villages, kidnapping people for ransom, or to sell as slaves.
Greek pirates favoured light, shallow-bottomed galleys that were fast and easy to steer. If their ships were pursued they could sail over rocky areas close to the shore where large ships were unable to follow.
Piracy continued right through the reign of the Roman Empire, and through to Viking times in the 9th century. Vikings practised piracy in the North Sea.
Read this book to find out more!
Have you ever had the sensation of forgetting something you’re absolutely sure you wouldn’t? Well I have and almost always I’d feel like my memory is getting sucked off to lala land. I came across this cool book that actually helps you remember stuff. You’ll learn cool tricks, experiments and great mind games. You could use this to amaze your friends and train your brain to remember stuff along the way. Simply awesome! Check out the book How to remember (almost) everything, ever! by Rob Eastaway.
Looking for something to do after stories@7 this Friday? Well, the Botanic Gardens are doing glow-worm tours on Friday the 3rd and 10th of October at 8pm. Kids under 12 are free and adults pay $5.00. The tours meet at the Founders’ Entrance (main gates, Glenmore Street). Visit the Wellington site for more info. Cool, eh?
Interested in stuff about glow worms? Have a look at these books.
Shh! Don’t tell anyone about stories@7 this Friday (3 October). Don’t tell your friends and especially don’t tell other kids who like top secret stories about spies and mysteries and things. We’ll see you there, though, in the usual top secret place, at the usual top secret time.
This message will self destruct in 10… 9… 8…
Kate and her mum Catherine receive their Books to Babies prize from Jane Hill.
What’s Books to Babies? To find out more visit our services page.
The word “pirate” means “one who plunders on the sea.” But there were also different types of pirate:
- Privateers, or “private men of war” were sea-raiders with a government licence to pillage enemy ships.
- Buccaneers were 17th century pirates who menaced the Spanish in the Caribbean.
- Corsairs were both privateers and pirates who roamed the Mediterranean.
- Barbary corsairs were Muslims who came from the southern coast of the Mediterranean.
Men were lured into the life of a pirate by the desire for riches, pleasure, freedom and power. Read this book for more info.
I found this awesome book on Paper Folding in the library today. There are some neat ideas for gifts like a box you can fill with chocolate or a photo frame for your favourite photo. You can also make paper bangers to scare your friends, or how about a water bomb for those hot summer days? Lots of great ideas to keep you entertained.
Psst! It’s true! There are bugs in your bed. Blood-sucking vampires, deadly dust-dwellers, toilet terrors and things that squish, squirm and slime. Did you have any idea you were sharing your house - and maybe your bed - with monsters? In this book by Heather Catchpole and Vanessa Woods you’ll meet a hideous creature that can live for a month without its head, a beetle that blasts its victims with toxic bottom spray, weird beings that breathe through their skin, five-eyed monsters that vomit on their prey to turn them into soup, and much, much more!
Are you a Cornelia Funke fan? Have you read the other Ink… books and are you waiting eagerly for the next instalment? Well make sure you reserve your copy of Inkdeath now! If you are a fan we’d love to hear what you think of the books.
Wow! (the visual encyclopedia of everything) is a brand new book which will hook you with page after page of great photographic images. This is not your ordinary encyclopedia although there are the usual topics such as nature, space , the human body…
