(NOTE: I was given a copy of this book to preview but all opinions are mine.)
One lost treasure.
One determined fifth-grade treasure hunter.
One set of faithful twin third-grade assistants.
One bully.
One mortal enemy nicknamed Red Raven.
A network of second-grade spies.
One person with a secret agenda.
One undercover master treasure hunter with the initials M.M.
And what does this all add up to? It adds up to a mortal enemy attempting to thwart the determined team of treasure hunters while the big bad bully bullies the hunters. The treasure is found — huzzah! — and that’s followed by two big surprises.
In the book Graysen Foxx and the Treasure of Principal Redbeard by J. Scott Savage, fifth-grader Graysen Foxx, aka the Gray Fox, is on a quest to find a treasure box filled with things confiscated from students — things like toys, trinkets, games, and comic books.
Graysen and his twin assistants brave the Maze of Death (the dusty hallways beneath the school) for the treasure. They navigate stacks of old books, rats, and Desk Mountain (a huge stack of old, discarded desks).
Do they find the treasure? Nope. They get detention instead.
Greyson’s further efforts were delayed when he rescued a first-grader carrying a box of donuts (meant for his class) from some intimidating sixth graders.
His investigation was waylaid even more because he rescued a second-grader whose foot was caught in the net of the soccer goal. The strong wind was blowing the goal toward the Forsaken Field (an abandoned lot filled with scrubby trees, thick vines, and tall weeds that hid things like baseballs, hats, and jackets).
Greyson’s hunt takes him to the girl’s bathroom (eww!), down a winding circular staircase, into a cavern, through a tidal wave of trash, through a stone tunnel, and finally to the catwalk and prop storage above the school’s auditorium.
That’s when he learned about the person with a secret agenda. That’s when he fell into a big snake’s head prop (where his enemy shortly joined him). And that’s when he and his enemy were knocked unconscious because the snake head prop crashed into a huge castle prop.
And most important of all, that’s when Graysen finally gets the treasure box and discovers who the undercover master treasure hunter is.
One of the things I like best about this book is that Graysen is always a good kid. He’s not selfish. He wants to find the treasure to share it with the other students. (His enemy, Red Raven, selfishly wants to keep the treasure all to herself.)
He’s brave even though his hunt takes him to scary places and is brave when the bully and his henchmen come after him.
He finds nice ways to handle the bully. He doesn’t retaliate. He isn’t mean.
He’s resourceful. He uses his elastic stretchy hand toy to get out of a lot of scrapes.
He’s kind to others, thoughtful, and defends the underdog.
In fact, he’s the kind of friend that you would want your grandkids to have.
Here’s a fun little video about the book.
There’s only one thing that I didn’t particularly like. And I’m speaking here as an adult reader. (Elementary-aged readers probably wouldn’t mind this at all.) There were TONS of similes. Now, for those of you, Dear Reader, who can’t exactly remember what a simile is, I’ll tell you. It’s a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared.
Similes can paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind. Which is good. But in this book, it seems like every other sentence had a simile. It’s like how you feel after eating too much Halloween candy — like you over did it. (Makes me wonder where his editor was . . .)
But, like I said, kids probably wouldn’t noticed it at all.
Graysen Foxx and the Treasure of Principal Redbeard is for kids ages 8-12 years old. You can get a copy of it on Amazon for $18.00.
