Peggy Parish is an author best recognized for her multitude
of Amelia Bedelia books, wherein a
cheerful and VERY literal-minded maid gets into all sorts of scrapes with her
misunderstandings of common figures of speech. These books are great ways for
children to learn how to read—and how to enjoy
reading and wordplay.
The Key to the Treasure
is the next step, being longer and more complex than the Amelia Bedelia Easy Readers, yet still retaining a sense of fun
that helps transition young readers from “See Spot Run” to longer chapter books.
The story is about three siblings—Jed, Liza, and Bill—as they
go spend the summer with their grandparents. Their planned adventure of
building a tree house is continually put on hold due to rain throughout the
story, causing them to pursue another, less conventional adventure. Just before
the Civil War their great-great-great-grandfather created a mystery for his children
to solve while he was at war, in order to distract them from worrying about him.
The treasure hunt was to have led them to three artifacts that were part of a family
collection of Indian relics, including a doll, a war mask, and a shield. The
first clue, however, was mistakenly destroyed, and for generations the mystery
remained unsolved and the treasure lost.
Needless to say the three siblings come across one of the
other clues, which leads them to uncover puzzles, codes, and riddles that their
triple-great-grandfather left so many years ago. I can’t say much about the plot
beyond that, as I would hate to spoil any of it.
I remember loving this book as a kid, not only because I was
obsessed with Native American culture, but because this mystery was told in
such a way that I could figure it out along with the main characters. All of
the “clues” are presented so that the reader has time to solve them before they
continue reading, so it’s like being in
the story with the characters. It’s highly interactive and a great introduction
to the mystery genre.
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