By Jemma Hatt
4RBooks: 4/6, grades 4-6
Amazon rating: 4.5/5, reading age 9-12
Good Reads: 4.10/5
Common Sense Media: Not yet reviewed
194 pages
Synopsis:
Lara is looking forward to summer vacation, even though she will be spending it with her cousin Rufus, who annoys her. He has come to live with them while his mother is in Hollywood and his grandparents are on a cruise. Life is about to get worse when she learns that her mother, an Egyptologist, is off to Egypt for a special assignment. She and Rufus, and her dog Barney, are heading to their Uncle Herb’s castle in Cornwall.
They have never met their uncle before and soon learn he is quite eccentric. They also learn that there is a curse on the castle because of the Egyptian treasures their ancestor Captain Jack Kexley brought back from Egypt, and hid. Lara and Rufus join with Tom, the son of the family that works for their uncle and begin the hunt for clues to the treasure’s existence and location.
It all seems like a harmless adventure until the house is broken into, a clue is stolen, and two men from the British Museum appear to take more interest in their activities than would be considered appropriate. A race for the treasure begins, one that will be more exciting and dangerous than any of the children imagined.
Parental Guidance: low
The children are stalked by someone trying to discover what they know.
The children are followed by an evil, black-market trader and captured by gun-
toting henchmen.
The children are trapped in a cove as high tide is coming in, potentially leading to
drowning.
A few scenes occur in the local pub, of which Tom’s dad is a regular customer.
Rufus’s mother is barely interested in him, and he chooses to stay with his aunt
rather than go home with her.
Recommendation:
I should start by saying that I did not read this book. I was on a 10-hour car ride home and listened to it on audible. This is book 1 of a 6-book series. I enjoyed this story enough that I would consider reading the rest. It is a well written adventure and, unlike some other books I’ve reviewed, doesn’t get bogged down with too many clues and too many adventures.
It is not the most original story idea. I think most readers of children’s literature will recognize the plot devices from other stories: children left alone as parents are on their own adventures; children sent to live with an eccentric relative who lives in an unusual house; there is a mystery for the children to solve involving a treasure; evil men appear to try and derail their efforts and take the treasure for themselves.
Many reviewers on Goodreads thought that it reminded them of The Famous Five stories of Enid Blyton, a series written from 1942-1963. I am not familiar with that story, but it did remind me of many others. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good read. It should be enjoyed by both girl and boy readers, easy enough for struggling readers, but enough intrigue to keep advanced readers interested, too. I could see this being a classroom read-aloud, especially for a sixth-grade class with its ancient Egypt ties.
This novel was chosen by young readers are the Gold Award winner of the 2019 Wishing Shelf Book Awards for ages 9-12. It was also the winner of the 2020 Children’s Selfies Award.
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