Author: Emily Fairlie
Illustrator: Antonio Javier Caparo
© Date: 2012
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Pages: 284
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, but most pages do not have any illustrations
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book:
Tips for solving the treasure challenge created by your crazy school founder over eighty years ago
By Laurie Madison and Bud Wallace, Grade 6
- Be suspicious of student journalists. And maybe janitors, too.
- Make friends with your ancient school librarian. If her blue hair freaks you out, get over it.
- Be prepared to sing like an angel or, at the very least, like a pirate.
- Never underestimate the usefulness of furry rodents (especially flesh-eating ones).
- Avoid the English wing. Seriously. You don’t want to go there.
Using a unique blend of notes, lists, and classic prose, The Lost Treasure of Tuckernuck tells the story of Bud and Laurie’s quest to find the infamous Tutweiler Treasure. They’re hot (or at least lukewarm) on the trail of clues, but times is running out—the school board wants to tear down Tuckernuck Hall. Can Bud and Laurie find the treasure before it’s lost forever?
Emily Fairlie’s memorable caper combines timeless mystery with humor in a treasure trove of wry wit, thrilling adventure, and undeniable heart.
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: Unfortunately for this book, I have taken so long to write a review because my thoughts are rather brief. This one was an an enjoyable quest to solve super old clues. Some parts of the story were silly, but I didn’t find many parts of the story overly humorous. The exception to that was the gerbils, thank you Ponch (or Jon). I did enjoy the mystery and the surprise of what the treasure contained. I hope to read this one with Page Pup before too long.
Family Unit:
- Laurie lives with her older brother, mother, and father.
- Bud lives with his father. His mother died some years earlier.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Laurie misses being able to hang out with her best friend.
- Laurie and Bud try to secretly find the Tuckernuck treasure.
- Bud tries to hide from his father what is distracting him from his educational drills.
Positive Items:
- Laurie and Bud become friends.
- Laurie is happy to be a Tuckernuck student.
- Bud is no longer the enemy of all students.
- Bud and his father are able to enjoy the distractions of life.
- In the end, Laurie and Bud are happy even though the treasure was not gold or jewelry.
Items of Interest:
- Laurie had been trying to convince her parents that she should transfer schools so she could go to school with her best friend.
- Bud is the enemy of most students because he is responsible for all forms of sugar being banned from school. Turns out that he just got a little excited after a school science project. At the end of the story, we find out that the teachers had been secretly having sugar and the students find out.
- Laurie and Bud wind up getting gerbil duty on the classroom assignments. The gerbils are supposed to be super vicious and conniving. While trying to recover a runaway gerbil, Laurie and Bud stumble upon the solution to the first clue for the Tuckernuck treasure.
- Finding clues for the Tuckernuck treasure is tricky because it was created eighty years earlier. Laurie and Bud wind up telling a few small lies and sneaking into places to look for clues.
- After the death of his mother, Bud had made an agreement with his father that life was too short to get distracted. Bud spent his time before and after school doing extra educational drills.
- While Laurie and Bud are secretly looking for more clues around school, they wind up reluctantly signing up for different things around school. Bud winds up in choir, Laurie starts a poets club, and both of them wind up in the next drama production.
- Laurie and her best friend wind up growing apart at their separate schools.
- Bud’s father goes to school to have a discussion with Bud’s choir teacher about why Bud cannot be in choir. Turns out that he became a little smitten with the teacher. The end of the story has Bud and his father loosened up a little and enjoying the distractions of life.
- The Tuckernuck treasure winds up being a spirit stick that gives the finder the power to change the school’s identity and create next year’s treasure hunt challenge.
- Tuckernuck school winds up being saved from demolition because the treasure also includes a listing of the famous artists and architects that contributed to the school’s renovation.