Huber Hill and the Dead Man’s Treasure by B. K. Bostick

(Digital ARC received from Cedar Fort Publishers.)

Huber Hill is having a rough time. At home his parents are always fighting, and at school he has no real friends and gets picked on daily by  Scott, a bully whose life mission seems to be to destroy Huber. To top it all off, Huber’s twin sister, Hannah, is seemingly perfect, an athlete with good grades and tons of friends. The only time Huber feels truly happy is when he and Hannah visit Grandpa Nick, who tells them stories of his youthful adventure days and the hunt for Spanish treasure buried in mines in the mountains. When Grandpa Nick suddenly passes away, he leaves the twins a secret gift: a box with an old journal, a centuries-old map, and a single gold coin. The treasure is real!

In the meantime, a school conflict unexpectedly brings Huber and Scott together, and they start to build a strong friendship. When Huber’s parents announce a temporary separation, all three kids agree that it’s time to get away–time to search for buried treasure!

Unbeknownst to their parents, the three kids hike into the mountains on a camping trip to start the search, trying to decipher faded Spanish notes with the help of Grandpa Nick’s journal and slowly working their way closer to Tesoro de los Muertos. But no good adventure story would be complete without a bad guy: meet Salazar, a scarred, creepy, and blood-thirsty Spaniard who traveled across the world to claim the treasure for himself. When he learns of the map, he stealthily follows Huber, Hannah, and Scott into the mountains. As the kids get closer to solving the riddles and treasure location, Salazar kidnaps Huber and steals the map. Suddenly an adventurous camping trip has turned into a nightmare, and Huber, Hannah, and Scott are fighting for their lives!

Huber Hill is a fun adventure book, one that several reviewers have compared to the movie The Goonies. All three kids are relatable characters, and the thrill of the chase, the mystery of the treasure, and the dangers from both nature and enemies will keep readers absorbed in the story, making this book a real page-turner. The only problem I had was the villain: yes, he’s evil, and yes, he’s compelling. But the dude would not die. (Hand-to-paw combat with a mountain lion, falling off of cliffs, crushed bones… and he’s still chasing after them!) In the long haul, though, I think the main issue is my adult inability to suspend disbelief, and it isn’t a fault that kids–engrossed as they’ll be in the exhilarating adventure–will notice or care about.

Will Huber, Hannah, and Scott find the Dead Man’s Treasure? Will they even survive to tell the tale? Pick up the book when it’s published on October 1 to find out!

Be sure to check out our interview with author B. K. Bostick from earlier this month!

 

Age 9-13

Copyright October 2011

ISBN: 9781599559117

Will be available as an eBook

Image from www.deadmanstreasure.com