The Treasure Hunt: True Stories of Treasures Lost, Stolen, and Found

by Leisa Stewart-Sharpe, Gordy Wright (Illustrator)

Overview

Switch on your metal detector, grab your compass, and follow the clues. It’s time for YOU to do some treasure hunting of your own! Because X marks the spot . . . or does it?

Perfect for fans of Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid, this nonfiction adventure book will have 6-9 year-olds wanting to travel the world.

Following a trail of intriguing clues, take an epic journey around the world and discover heart-stopping true stories of treasure lost, stolen, and found.

• Exactly where is Queen Nefertiti’s mummy HIDDEN?
• Can the Titanic’s treasures be SAVED from the waves?
• Could you help find a Viking HOARD with a metal detector?

Find out which artist’s work has been STOLEN more than 80 times and where you can DIG UP the tooth of a T. rex as YOU become the treasure hunter . . .

Countries around the world readers will visit:

• Scotland
• Norway
• Egypt
• Indonesia
• India
• Colombia
• Madagascar
• And many more

Kids will love this engaging and interactive book that's chock-full of information and facts. THEY are the treasure hunter, and THEY get to be a map reader, code cracker, and puzzle solver, searching for lost treasure and figuring out the mystery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623546298
Publisher:	Charlesbridge
Publication date:	06/10/2025
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Leisa Stewart-Sharpe is a journalist turned children’s author who grew up in Australia. She has traveled and adventured all over the world. Leisa has come face-to-face with an aye-aye in the Madagascan jungle, sweated across the grasslands of Kenya (chased by a herd of elephants!), and has snorkeled with sharks Down Under. Today Leisa writes children’s books from a shed in her English garden, including her bestselling nonfiction books. All of her books have one thing in common: they’re about wild places and written for wild children.

Gordy Wright is an illustrator, printmaker, and picture-book maker from the UK. He studied illustration at the University of the West of England, and he enjoys playing with narratives and evoking natural, textured feeling in his illustrations.
www.gordywright.com

Editorial Reviews

Searching for treasure exhumes much more than pieces of eight.
Brown-skinned Saksham and Zuri and an unnamed pale-skinned child referred to as “you” (a stand-in for readers) undertake a round-the-world journey, always just one step behind the ghost of the infamous pirate Captain Kidd, who’s apparently trying to purloin treasures “as revenge for the riches he lost all those years ago.” Their pursuit depends on the many convenient clues that Kidd has left for readers, providing motivation for aspiring map readers, code crackers, puzzle solvers, and inscription decipherers. Along the way, the children discover stories of both found and still-missing lost loot, including the Mona Lisa, the Viking ship Gokstad, India’s Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, and China’s Terracotta Army. The quest takes the indefatigable trio across the globe, digging up a fair amount of history on the way. Interspersing comics panels with captioned vignettes and full-page illustrations, Wright’s brightly detailed and watercolorlike images evoke the far-flung destinations. Despite some editorial lapses, this engaging and information-packed U.K. import offers plenty of visual excitement, including changes of perspective, time period, and composition. The protagonists unearth facts related to geography, history, paleontology, archeology, and cryptic communication during their journey. The revelation at the end might be somewhat of a letdown, but no treasures were harmed during this protracted hunt.
Interactive fun that demonstrates that knowledge is the most rewarding treasure of all.
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2025-04-04
Searching for treasure exhumes much more than pieces of eight.

Brown-skinned Saksham and Zuri and an unnamed pale-skinned child referred to as “you” (a stand-in for readers) undertake a round-the-world journey, always just one step behind the ghost of the infamous pirate Captain Kidd, who’s apparently trying to purloin treasures “as revenge for the riches he lost all those years ago.” Their pursuit depends on the many convenient clues that Kidd has left for readers, providing motivation for aspiring map readers, code crackers, puzzle solvers, and inscription decipherers. Along the way, the children discover stories of both found and still-missing lost loot, including theMona Lisa, the Viking shipGokstad, India’s Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, and China’s Terracotta Army. The quest takes the indefatigable trio across the globe, digging up a fair amount of history on the way. Interspersing comics panels with captioned vignettes and full-page illustrations, Wright’s brightly detailed and watercolorlike images evoke the far-flung destinations. Despite some editorial lapses, this engaging and information-packed U.K. import offers plenty of visual excitement, including changes of perspective, time period, and composition. The protagonists unearth facts related to geography, history, paleontology, archeology, and cryptic communication during their journey. The revelation at the end might be somewhat of a letdown, but no treasures were harmed during this protracted hunt.

Interactive fun that demonstrates that knowledge is the most rewarding treasure of all. (code-breaking explanations; world map; introduction to orienteering, metal-detecting, and geocaching)(Nonfiction/activity book. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews