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Strike Gold with Caroline Starr Rose’s Jasper and the Riddle of Riley’s Mine
Ever since their ma died, and their pa took to comforting himself with drink, eleven-year-old Jasper Johnson and his older brother, Melvin, have been on their own. Hiding away half of what Melvin earns at the mill, the two plan to escape from the small town of Kirkland, Washington as soon as they can. It looks like that opportunity has arrived when word comes that miners have struck gold in the Klondike. And not just a little gold: tons of it. Growing on trees and bushes, covering the roads, just lying about, ready to be scooped up by anyone who wants it. It’s exactly the type of opportunity Jasper and Melvin have been waiting for; the chance to start a new life, together, away from their pa’s temper.
So when Melvin skips town one day, leaving a note behind to say he’s headed to Canada in search of gold, Jasper is right behind him. Taking only a small knapsack, his ma’s washboard, and his pa’s gold watch, Jasper boards the ferry north, confident that once he meets up with Melvin, his brother will be relieved to see him, that they will follow the map to find gold, and that wealth and freedom are just on the horizon.
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Jasper does indeed find his brother, but that’s where dreams depart from reality. From the moment the brothers step off the ferry, they face every imaginable hurdle. Thieves, cold, exhaustion, illness, injury. It doesn’t take long before the two find themselves with little but the clothes on their backs, no money, and no gear. Yet, going home is not an option. Determined not to give up, Jasper turns his faith to a rumor about a miner named One-Eyed Riley. The word amongst the miners is that Riley struck it rich. So rich, he decided to abandon his claim and leave the mining life all together. He’s left behind five clues to the location of his claim, known only by word of mouth, and passed from miner to miner. Whomever can unravel the clues and find Old Riley’s claim can have it, and be set for life. And Jasper plans to be that person.
Jasper and the Riddle of Riley’s Mine is action, history, survival, and the bond of brotherhood all rolled into one. From the very beginning, we’re rooting for Jasper, wanting him to escape from his broken home, while also knowing that the road to his dream can’t possibly be as simple as he naively thinks it is. We worry over his run-ins with less scrupulous characters, silently (or not so silently) beg for him to watch his tongue, cheer for his entrepreneurship and creative problem-solving, and breathe a sigh of relief when he overcomes yet another obstacle. Caroline Starr Rose’s use of first person point of view allows us to experience the quest for gold and freedom through the eyes and mind of an eleven-year-old boy from a small northwest town. Jasper’s emotions become the reader’s emotions and we are drawn along with him through hope, despair, desperation, and perseverance, to a climactic end that strikes all the right chords.
Jasper and the Riddle of Riley’s Mine is on B&N bookshelves now.