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Set Sail for Adventure with Pirate Islands

July 31st, 2016
in Lifestyle

It’s no simple task finding resources to educate children about the history of the BVI.

For Scott Taylor—who’d lived in the region with his wife and children for over six years—he noticed the void in materials to unveil the BVI’s exciting history for kids. With an extensive background in graphic design for children, he created Newbie Junior with aLookingGlass in 2015 to provide facts and activities for infants/juniors; a book that exhibited what they can see and do in the BVI. Thoroughly enjoying this project, his passion to make certain that children have a plethora of educational resources was ignited…and so, Pirate Islands was conceived.

Conception

“Pirate Islands provides a fun educational resource through poems and puzzles for kids, visiting and living in the BVI,” said Scott.

Through sponsorship from ATU General Trust BVI, his ambition was made concrete. With illustrations completed by the same studio responsible for Newbie Junior, readers will be met with swashbuckling rogues who escort them through the BVI’s plundering past, keeping focus on the history and unique features of the individual islands within the Territory.

Inspiration

From foundation of Newbie Junior, Scott had gained knowledge of the BVI’s marine, plant, and animal life as well as its history – with this abundance of information, he decided to create Pirate Islands and is optimistic about establishing a brand that will grow to become the fun resource for kids in the BVI.

“The main inspiration for creating this book was my two boys and their friends in the BVI,” said Scott, highlighting the fuel behind his fire. “As we went on adventures, trips, and did activities on a weekly basis, I quickly realised that there was no literature for their age group that covered the amazing islands that we called home. I would always make up stories to get their imaginations going when we were on boats, at the beach, or walking the trails on a hike, so from there I thought about fusing the ‘make-belief’ with ‘reality.’”

A crucial attractive point about this fact-fiction book is that children will recognise many of the locations found within its pages, and Scott hopes it will inspire them to discover the other islands with their families.

“I suspect book buyers will be parents motivated to enjoy family activity even more, by perhaps reading the poems to their kids that illuminate familiar BVI locations, history, features, and creatures,” said Scott of the book’s audience. “It has fun pirate characters that live on each of the islands, introduces readers to the world around them and things they may not know, influencing family day excursions to explore and discover what they read.”

Future

“A second book titled Pirate Islands, Wonders of the Deep, is currently in development and due for release later in the year,” said Scott of the future for the Pirate Island brand. Following the pirate characters from the first book and a few innovative ones, the volume takes its audience on an underwater adventure showcasing the amazing marine world of the BVI. With games and facts central to educating kids on the animals and plant life of the islands, readers will be presented with tips on what they can do to preserve the natural environment of the BVI.

Currently, Pirate Islands is on sale through Arawak’s three main Arawak Surf locations—Nanny Cay, Soper’s Hole, and Leverick Bay—the Moorings gift shop, Foxy’s Taboo on Jost Van Dyke, and at the boutiques in Cooper Island and Peter Island. Along with the book, there is an activity poster map of the BVI featuring pirate ships, sea monsters, and a detailed layout of all the islands and bays. The book is also available to download on iPad as an interactive ibook in the online Apple Store.

Pirate Islands: bvipirateislands.com

Pirate Islands on Apple:https://itunes.apple.com/…/book/pirate-islands/id1109571496…

Pirate Islands on Facebook: facebook.com/BVIPIRATEISLANDS