Reviews

Gr 1-3‘For compulsive children who enjoy searching for Waldo, this picture-book puzzle story will be a tepid challenge. Lost Treasure is a sort of piratical compilation of fast-food puzzles designed to keep bored kids jumping through unimaginative hoops in order to unearth a buried treasure through the process of elimination. Readers are invited to scrutinize the busy, watercolor cartoons to find a variety of objects, including 20 "scurvy rats" on board the pirates' junk; to use a map to help the characters determine their location on an island; and to solve a maze in order to free a victim from an underground trap. Alongside runs a comic-book story of "good" pirates Mam and son Sam Spamme and their brave Black Dog vs. bad guys Red Roger and the cruel, Cheshire-like cat, Nelson. The double-page spreads are replete with asides, clues, inquiries, directions, and minutiae that add up to a confusing jumble.‘John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX