Make your own Gingerbread Pirates!

When I was working on The Gingerbread Pirates, my wife helped me out by baking lots of gingerbread men. You know, for research. Sure, I'll admit it, I ate a bunch of them. But I did decorate a few as Captain Cookie, Wavy, and Dots, and attempted to use them as models for my illustrations. (Though it didn't really work, because real cookies don't run, or climb, or show emotion. In the end, I just made up the pirates in the book.)

I've heard from a lot of people who have made their own gingerbread pirate crew after reading the book. If you want to give it a try, Candlewick Press put together a great story hour kit that includes a recipe for gingerbread cookies. It also includes and a nice coloring sheet, so you can make your own Gingerbread Pirates ornaments.

Have fun! Just follow that link and click on "Read to us! Story hour kit!"

Here are a few Gingerbread Pirate creations I've seen recently:

A pretty amazing crew! It'd be tough to eat these guys, especially after all they went through to run away from Santa...

These pirates were made by a class of preschoolers.

Their focus was not so much on accurately portraying the characters, but on covering the cookie with as much sugar as possible.

If you're not up for baking, you can also make some great Gingerbread Pirates out of construction paper. I saw these at a recent school visit. Pretty great, huh?

Man, there are a lot of peg legs in this crowd!

Or you can always just keep it simple and draw a picture. Here's a pirate my 4-year-old daughter drew after reading The Gingerbread Pirates.