Treasure Island (Scholastic Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Ahoy, matey!
Review: I remember the first time I got a copy of the book "Treasure Island," I was about eight years old. I tried to get people to read it to me, but they always wanted to read something else, something with more pictures, and something with fewer words! It wasn't for several years that I finally got to read the book on my own - it took a while for my reading to advance, but I kept the book with the boy and pirate and the bird on the cover. It looked very interesting, and I knew there was treasure to be had inside of it!

The narrator is Jim Hawkins, son of the innkeepers of the Admiral Benbow Inn. A mysterious stranger, Billy Bones, lives at the inn and likes to spin stories, including the one about the one-legged man who he warns Jim to keep a watch for. A blind man appears and so frightens Billy Bones with the black spot that he dies of a stroke. Jim and his mother find Billy's sea chest, and in there is a map.

You knew that there had to be a map, didn't you?

There were coins and other things, but soon others arrive in search of the map. Jim has care of the map, and takes it to people he trusts, the Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesey. They recognize the map as a treasure map made by the evil Captain Flint. The Squire purchases a ship called "the Hispaniola," hired a crew and a captain, Captain Smollet. The cook is perhaps the most famous name in the book - Long John Silver. He is a one-legged man, too.

Jim discovers that some of Smollett's crew were part of Flint's crew, and are plotting to kill them all and take the treasure. Once on the island, most go ashore, including Jim, who discovers in hiding an ex-pirate named Ben Gunn who was left on the island by his former crew. Gunn promises to help Jim and his friends, who have taken refuge in an old fort on the island. The other pirates with Long John Silver attack the fort, but without success in getting the map.

Jim manages to sneak into the fort, but the gunfire continues the next day, without success on either side. Jim sneaks out again, takes Ben Gunn's boat stealthily out to the Hispaniola, and cuts its ropes and sets it adrift. The next morning, the sea is rough, and Jim has to fend off the attack of a remaining pirate. Jim manages to get the ship into a cove.

The fort falls, and the Doctor gives Long John Silver the map. There is some give and take among the pirates as to what to do with the doctor and Jim. After some tussle, in which Long John Silver almost gets the black spot of death himself, they go after the treasure chest. Will they find it?

There is a lot of excitement here. Finding the treasure chest, after all this adventure, turns out to just be the beginning. Ben Gunn has a secret, you see, and the Doctor isn't out of the picture entirely, either. Long John Silver isn't quite the bloodthirsty pirate through and through, and in a strange twist, there is a relatively happy ending.

It certainly made for an exciting story for a young boy, and when I re-read portions of it now and then, I get a bit of a thrill again. The characters are brash and well written. Robert Louis Stevenson is a great novelist, knowing how to put together plot and character, and his use of the language gives the reader a sense of the salt air and rough and tumble of the seas.

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Summary: Mother of a Fourth Grader
Review: My daughter was assigned to read this book over the summer in between 4th and 5th grade. Although I know it is a great classic, it is extremely difficult to read, especially for her age. I am reading it to her and I, myself find that it is difficult to read and there are many words which I need to look up and many phrases which I cannot even lookup, so we are missing a great deal. I wish there was a modern American English translation available so that we could enjoy the story and not get so stuck on just trying to understand what is going on.

Rating:
Summary: A picture book adaptation of the classic story of adventure
Review: Treasure Island is a picture book adaptation of the classic story of adventure, which has been carefully abridged for younger readers. The expressive full-color, museum quality illustrations by the late N. C. Wyeth perfectly complement this great classic by the great nineteenth-century author Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island is very highly recommended for novice readers just about ready to graduate from picture book to reading to more involved and complex stories.