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SEEKONK - Performing artist, storyteller, songwriter and author Bill Harley draws on the universal themes of pirates and bossy big sisters for his eighth children's picture book, "Dirty Joe the Pirate."

Released May 13, the book - written for children ages 5-8 - tells the tale of Dirty Joe's search for treasure and dirty socks, and his unexpected run-in with a nasty crew of female pirates led by his bossy big sister, Stinky Annie. The girls pilfer underwear from unsuspecting ships and hang the undergarments from their rigging lines.

In real life, Harley doesn't have a big sister, he is the second of three sons. But he says bossy big sisters are something everyone can relate to. "When I perform ("Dirty Joe the Pirate"), I'll see adults just nodding their heads and big sisters turning to their little brothers poking them saying 'see, told ya!'"

Such silliness that has made Harley popular with kids didn't begin with Dirty Joe. He has published seven other picture books and recorded nine albums and 28 stories and songs, all aimed at children. Harley says his sons, Noah, 24, and Dylan, 20, are pretty good judges of his work.

In 2001, Harley was named a member of the Circle of Excellence by the National Storytelling network, and in 2006, he was given the Parents' Choice Gold Storytelling World Award. Harley also received the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Spoken-Word Album for Children for "Blah Blah Blah: Stories About Clams, Swamp Monsters, Pirates and Dogs," in addition to three other Grammy nominations. "Pirates and dinosaurs are forever a license to misbehave," Harley explains. "They're something that did exist. Kids love them."

Along with stories of pirates, smelly socks, and undies, Harley uses his talent to contribute to the education and well-being of children.

"What I want to do is give families a common language for things that come up in life, so that kids can say, 'Wow, I'm not the only one who feels like that,'" says Harley. "My job is not to prescribe what kids should be, but to name things that are real and to put them into context so that they can relate to them."

After graduating in 1977 from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. with a degree in religion, he took a different path than he had expected. Harley started off as the director of a program run by American Friends Service Committee aimed at helping children and parents deal with conflict. When he and his wife, Debbie Block, moved to Providence in 1980, they started The Learning Connection, an adult education program.

But it was his love for music that determined Harley's fate. While co-founding Stone Soup Coffeehouse, the Providence folk-music institution now based in Pawtucket, he realized how much he enjoyed entertaining others, especially children. Harley was soon performing his stories and songs at libraries and elementary schools all over the country. His storytelling career really took off in 1984, when he and Block started their own company, Round River Records. Harley's first recording, "Monsters in the Bathroom," sealed the deal.

After years of performing, Harley says writing was just the next natural step for him.

"I had told myself I was going to write a poem every day for my job as a writer," he explains. "I didn't really think it through, I just sat down as started to write."

Inspired by the Yukon Gold Rush poetry of Robert W. Service, Harley followed the story- inside-a-poem writing tradition.

"I actually wrote 'Dirty Joe the Pirate' seven or eight years ago," Harley said. "Both my parents were writers, so I saw how tough it can be. It takes a lot of time, and not everything gets published. It's part of the deal."

Currently, Harley is the artist-in-residence at the Paul Cuffee School in Providence, and he is working on a longer novel for kids that is due out in the fall. Harley also continues to perform at schools all over the country, and he will be visiting the winners of his Pirate Dirty Joe poetry contest, a second grade class in Brookings, S.D. "If I've had success it's because kids know I understand what they are going through. You have to honor their emotional lives and pay attention. Take what they do seriously," Harley explains. "Understand that sometimes rules don't work that well. Life is not that neat."