This review is part of a partnership with MomSelect – I received Treasure Hunters – Peril at the Top of the World and compensation for the time investment
I think we’ve well established I’m not the mushy-gushy type of mom, but there are things I love about motherhood, like any mom. Summer is not one of those things, neither is waking early to don an apron and fuss around in the kitchen over homemade pancakes and bacon before school each morning. I also don’t enjoy play*doh, sloppy kisses, or foreign substances on every surface of my house.
But what I do love, is reading to and with my children. I started the habit when I was first pregnant with Styles at the ripe young age of 19. I didn’t know then that my love of reading to my belly would spark a love of reading in my unborn son, but it did, at least until he discovered smart phones. Now I have to pry the thing out of his hands and force a book into them. The good thing is that the love of reading generally comes back quickly and he easily devours books.
The littles and I now read books each night before bed. Sometimes we cuddle up in a comfortable spot, sometimes we lay on the floor, and sometimes they lie in their beds while I sit on the floor and read to them librarian-style. We recently started our first chapter book called Treasure Hunters – Peril at the Top of the World by James Patterson & Chris Crabenstein. I was concerned that Grady wouldn’t be ready for a chapter book with few pictures, but he has been loving our time reading Treasure Hunters. Other than asking very pertinent questions and laughing at ridiculous things like Bick being called “Boogerface” and hearing about dog poop being scooped off of marble museum floors, he has been enthralled. Madilyn cuddles up close and pays close attention to the pictures. She often picks up on the clues in the pictures before I can even get to the text. There’s seriously nothing as exciting as seeing your six year old daughter picking up on clues that you’re completely missing.
The book is about the Kidd family who are professional treasure hunters. The parents, Sue and Thomas are former CIA agents who live to hunt the missing treasures of the world. The Kidd family loves this endeavor so much that their kids are schooled during their adventures and don’t attend public school. The Kidd kids; Tommy (whose voice I read with a deep and serious vocal fry), Storm (who is the brainiac nerd of the family with a photographic memory), and the twins Bick & Beck whose mischievous inability to listen to their parents warnings often help the family leap into the next plot-moving clue; are only allowed soda during vacations, which are often periods of time between each treasure hunting endeavor.
This Treasure Hunters book is the fourth in the Treasure Hunters series by James Patterson who, by the way, has written more #1 bestsellers for kids than any other living author – high five, sir Patterson! In this book, the Kidd family finds themselves in Russia searching for missing Faberge eggs, stolen gold and amber wall panels from The Amber Room in Russia, and four famous paintings that mysteriously went missing the day after the family arrived in St. Petersburg. As luck would have it, the family is blamed for the heist by an uber riche thirteen year old with a serious attitude problem. Madilyn immediately thought the kid was working for the people actually to blame for the heist, but I’m not giving that information up, you’ll have to read the book for yourself.
The book is full of funny dialogue, hilarious illustrations, and important historical and geographical facts that my kids had no idea they were picking up along the way. We stopped and talked about some of these points, looked at maps online, and did lots of web searches for images so they could visualize what the Kidd family was looking for in the geography they were looking for it in. I’m so excited that they enjoyed it as much as they did and that they retained so much of the information as we moved through the book. I have a new appreciation for multimedia reading and the educational value it brings to my children. I’m looking forward to going back through the Treasure Hunters series with them so we can catch up on what we missed with the Kidd family before reading Treasure Hunters – Peril at the Top of the World .
I highly recommend reading to your children each night if it isn’t something you’re already doing. We read about thirty pages each night, and I do fun voices so the kids can distinguish the characters from one another. It brings us together, but it also enriches their sphere of knowledge and gives them a love of reading which I hope will extend well into their adult years. Treasure Hunters – Peril at the Top of the World is a book that even young kids can follow along with, but I couldn’t stop myself from turning the pages either. Some nights were a struggle to put the book down, which, in my estimation, is the telltale sign of a great book.
Buy Treasure Hunters – Peril at the Top of the World at your nearest bookstore, or favorite online retailer.
Courtney Ludwig says
Great book review Madilyn. I might have to buy this book for my biys, Sam and Jay. Thanks.