Mad Treasure Hunt review

Judy Moody and Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt

by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

Candlewick

2009

It's a pirate-themed holiday for Judy and younger brother Stink as the Moody family makes their way to historic Ocracoke Island, home of legendary pirate Blackbeard. Stepping off the ferry, the siblings enthusiastically tackle a scavenger hunt organized by "Scurvy Sam," a.k.a. Cap'n Weevil. Solving each riddle leads to "pieces of eight" given by locals playing along with the contest. 

As Judy and Stink race around the island, two other kids seem to be hot on their heels. With a bit of ingenuity and perseverance, the Moodys manage to outwit their competition. Their joy in victory is tempered by the realization that the other kids who have been trying hard have inadvertently led them to the answers on a number of their clues. They decide to include them on their prize trip -- a sail around the bay on a real pirate ship. With a mix of pirate slang, silly jokes, Morse code, and tantalizing puzzles, enlivened with full-color cartoons throughout, this book will make for a humorous summer read.


I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Pirates vs. Ninjas, Part III

During our most recent weekly Summer Reading Club meeting, I set our regulars to work on a puppet-making project.

For the pirates, we used this paper-bag project. I had some teen volunteers help me pre-cut the beards and mustaches. What I didn't expect was that most of the kids in our Summer Reading Club used multiple beards. These were some very hirsute pirates!

For the ninja puppets, I improvised something out of a toilet-paper tube. I wrapped it in black construction paper, added an oval for a face and a strip of white paper for a belt. The toughest part was probably the shuriken. I practiced drawing it a few times, and then cut it out. I glued it so that the pencil marks don't show.

I think he looks pretty sharp!

Pirates vs. Ninjas, Part II

We've all been having a lot of fun with the "Pirates vs. Ninjas" contest I'm having at the library this summer.

Recently, we had a little sing-a-long, with verses that I mostly made up on the spot.

We alternated between pirates and ninjas.

It's to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It"

If you're a pirate and you know it, swab the deck! (make swabbing, mop-like motions)

If you're a pirate and you know it, swab the deck!

If you're a pirate and you know it, and you really want to show it,

If you're a pirate and you know it, swab the deck!

If you're a ninja and you know it, stay alert! (make spying motions)

If you're a ninja and you know it, stay alert!

If you're a ninja and you know it, and you really want to show it,
If you're a ninja and you know it, stay alert!

more pirate verses:

...walk the plank! (make jumping while holding your nose motions)

...get the gold! (make grabbing motions)

more ninja verses:

...sneak around! (make sneaking motions)

...battle crime! (make ninja motions)

This was really a lot of fun. I suppose I even could have had the kids help me improvise some more verses.

Each week the kids bring what they've been reading so that we can weigh it and keep track of how many pounds of books everyone's been reading. So far, ninjas have a pretty healthy lead. I've been exhorting them to start voting for pirates now, if they're going to; which only seems to incite the ninja fans to read more.

Mothstorm

Mothstorm: The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus!

by Philip Reeve

Bloomsbury USA Children's Books

2008

The third (and final?) installment in the Larklight series provides more of the fantastic steampunk Victorian sensibility made familiar to us in Larklight and Starcross. Honestly, this book could stand on it's own... but reading the first two in the series would be highly recommended. Some hilarious footnotes accompany the text, and as usual, David Wyatt's illustrations add much to the feel of the book. We are treated to a few of Myrtle's flowery diary pages, but Art is the main narrator.

It's Christmastime in the Year of Our Lord 1851 and the Mumby family has settled in for the holiday at their home, Larklight, a mansion located on one of the most distant asteroids of the British Empire. They are interrupted by the minor problem of space-faring pudding worm, which disguises itself as a raisin and eats Christmas puddings from the inside out. The major problem is that Georgium Sidus (aka Uranus) has sent a distress call, and the whole family goes out to investigate.

The omnipotence of Art's mother, in actuality a Shaper, or disembodied alien being who created and continues to influence the solar system for the past several millennia, is neatly sidestepped. Encountering an alternate Shaper in another solar system, we see a glimpse of how the world would be if ruled by a despot, rather than a gentle being committed to letting her creations have free will.

The brave and intrepid Charity Cruet provides a great balance to the ever fussy and proper Myrtle. She and Art seem well-suited to each other. Space-pirate Jack Havock and Myrtle's romance shows signs of not being over yet, as they find themselves thrown together again.

The mysteries of Ssilissa's origins are finally revealed. The quiet girl-lizard pilot on Jack Havock's ship turns out to be a member of the Snilth race, from far beyond our galaxy. The Snilth recognize in Ssilissa's knobby tail the former royal family of their people, and abandon their warlike ways to settle on Pluto with her as their queen.

I thought the attempt to rescue Jack's family from the Venusian tree virus could have taken up a whole book on it's own, but everything is rather quickly taken care of in the final chapter. Fans of the series will either be happy to see every loose end so neatly wrapped up, or (like me) wish that there were more. The book is coming out in paperback in November, so if you've missed it when it first came out, definitely consider adding this to your list of "must reads." And, it looks as if Larklight is in development as a movie to be released sometime in 2010, so I expect interest in this trilogy to continue.

Pirates vs. Ninjas

This summer, our Summer Reading Club Theme is “Treasured Islands.” The idea is that each branch is like a little island within the city – an island of culture and learning. And of course, many librarians are including pirate-themed activities as part of their summer line-up. This however, wasn’t enough for me. I decided to bring in that age-old conflict: Pirates vs. Ninjas. So, keeping with our islands theme, it’s the Caribbean Islands, vs. the Islands of Japan.

For the past couple of years I’ve done a program called Read-a-Ton. I have all our summer reading participants bring in what books they’ve been reading that week, and we weigh them on a kitchen scale. We keep track of how many pounds of books everyone in the community has been reading all summer. Last summer, I think we read 183 pounds of books! So far, everyone has been endearingly honest with their weigh-ins. I fully expected to have to fend off ridiculous claims of books read when I started doing Read-a-Ton, but that really hasn’t been the case.

This year, while brainstorming what to do for summer reading club, I decided to mix things up a bit. Children will still get all the fun of weighing their summer reading, however, now they get to vote for what kind of end-of-summer party we’ll have. Each pound of books counts as a vote that can be applied to either pirates OR ninjas. Who will emerge victorious? Will we be hosting a shindig suitable for buccaneers, or a soirée fit for martial-arts masters? Only time, (and our young readers) will tell!

(Image created by Wellington Grey under a Creative Commons license)

Pirates ahoy

Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean

by Justin Somper

Little, Brown, Young Readers

2006

It's about pirates... who are also the undead! It's about vampires... who sail the high seas! It's about... VAMPIRATES!

In this thrilling action adventure, twins Connor and Grace are bereft when their father dies and leaves them penniless. They quickly make their escape from an orphanage and sail away from the lighthouse island they grew up on. A sea storm later, Connor ends up on a pirate ship, while Grace ends up battling for her life on a vampire ship. Connor soon takes up sword-fighting lessons, which come in handy during several battles. Grace, on the other hand, must use her wits to puzzle out the mystery of what exactly is going on aboard the macabre vessel where she's being held captive. The story is told in alternating chapters, and while the twins are satisfyingly reunited in the end, it promises to be the beginning of a series. And, sure enough, British author Somper quickly followed the first book, Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean with three more; Tide of Terror, Blood Captain and Black Heart, just released this April.

The title certainly drew me in, and I think it's something with a lot of kid appeal, definitely. I'm a little surprised that I haven't had more requests for this series. I'm sure I'll be putting this in plenty of youngsters' hands this summer.