Treasure Hunters - James Patterson

Genre:  Christian Romance

Publisher:  Little, Brown and Company

Publication Date:  September 16, 2013

Rating:  5 Out of 5  Near Perfect

PROS:  Fun and exciting adventures, fast and easy read, great for kids

CONS:  None

Ship wrecked islands.  Gold.  Treasure.  Pirates.  Famous parents.  Do I have your attention?  If you were an 8-12 year old child, you bet I would! ☺  Imagine your parents have been kidnapped, and it's up to you to figure out what happened to them and save their lives before it's too late.  Along the way you have a treasure hunting mystery to solve, pirates to defeat, and lives to save, all while following the clues to why your parents disappeared!

James Patterson may be best known for his adult fiction, but he is also becoming more known amongst the younger crowd.  While he may no longer write his own books, his name is still on the covers, so we will pretend he wrote this one!

Since this was my first adventure with a Patterson childrens novel,  I felt I needed to get the opinion of an expert, our 12 year old son.  An avid reader, like his mother, I knew I could count on him to tell me like it is.  And he didn't disappoint. 

Let's start out with his thoughts.  While he definitely enjoyed the storyline, he felt like he may have been a bit old for this book.  He thought the target age range may be better stated at 8-11 year olds, it was a really fast and easy read for him, not as difficult as those he is accustomed to in school.  He thought it was full of exciting adventures, and his attention never wondered.  This book was such a fun read, he decided to recommend it to his 7^th grade classmates!

My thoughts?  I also enjoyed the storyline of this book.  I agree that it was full of exciting adventures, something the children would enjoy reading.  Especially the boys...and aren't they usually the more reluctant readers?  I recommended this book to our Childrens Director at the library where I work, and it has been checked out many times since we received it!

The storyline and characters are well developed, leading the children on the path to a well written novel.  Vivid in explanation, you can almost picture yourself in the middle of a ship deep in a war with the pirates.  Oh, wait!  We forgot to mention...there are a few sketches/pictures throughout the story!  These pictures are great for showing the younger crowd what is happening while you read to them! 

If time permitted, I would love to read this to our 9 year old twin daughters...but at 451 pages, it may take a while to find the time for the 3 of us to get together to do this.  But they would definitely enjoy it, there are a set of twins in the story as well!  If your looking for a new series to give as a gift or to draw in a non-reader, I would recommend Treasure Hunters...you can't go wrong with this one!