Review: Excellent Children's Adventure Story with Mystery, Humor, and Danger
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 10, 2014
“The Treasure at Devil’s Hole” is an excellent children’s adventure story, both well-written and exciting. It sets up the action and its characters quickly, so that you are immediately drawn into the story—Bug Mosser’s older brother Tom is obsessed with digging a hole in the cornfield, and Bug and his younger brothers are on a secret mission to Devil’s Hole to find the treasure that legend has it is hidden within. Their mission is quickly discovered and thwarted by Bug’s protective mother—but that doesn’t mean they give up, and the adventure grows grander and more dangerous with the appearance of a mysterious bald man and kidnapping accusations that have the whole town in an uproar.Younger readers will love Bug and devour this story. Bug is a great protagonist—he’s brave and spunky, with a sweet crush on a girl named Melanie, and he never hesitates to do the right thing. The story itself is fast-paced, interlacing mystery with humor and action, and the chapters are short enough that a young reader could read the story to him- or herself or an adult could read the story aloud to a child who has started with more complex chapter books. It’s got more than a little of a Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn adventure feel, and it does a good job of maintaining interest and tension without being scary or containing thematic elements. Recommended to younger readers who like adventure/mystery stories and parents who are looking for a good clean read for their kids.