UNDER THE BLACK FLAG by Erik...

UNDER THE BLACK FLAG by Erik Christian Haugaard (Roberts Rinehart: $8.95; 163 pp., paperback original). An award-winning juvenile author, Erik Haugaard presents the adventures of William Bernard, a teen-ager traveling to England from his father’s plantation in Jamaica, who is kidnaped by the infamous Blackbeard. Although he spins an exciting yarn, Haugaard never glamorizes the pirates. As Blackbeard’s de facto cabin boy, William has ample opportunity to observe their cruelty and the miserable conditions aboard a 17th-Century sailing ship. Informative but never didactic, “Flag” will claim the attention of any young readers.