In Booksurfers: Treasure Island we are introduced to a team of young book loving characters: Jake, Becca, Ryan and Harriet. The foursome have been kid...moreIn Booksurfers: Treasure Island we are introduced to a team of young book loving characters: Jake, Becca, Ryan and Harriet. The foursome have been kidnapped from their respective homes by the totally nasty Dr Crookshanks, and his evil inventor accomplice Professor Kaufman. His demands are simple: using the Nautilus, an incredible gadget created by Kaufman that allows people to enter the story of any book they choose, he wants the children to enter Treasure Island and retrieve Billy Bones' map so that he can sell it for a huge fortune.
Unfortunately for Jake and his new friends they very quickly discover that this is not as simple as it sounds, and they can't just rock up at the first mention of the map in the story and nab it, as this would mean that the whole story would then cease to exist (what's the point of Treasure island without the map?), and therefore the map would be worthless. And so begins an exciting adventure for the 9+ age group that had me totally hooked.
But.... there is much more to Booksurfers than just the standard "send new characters in to old stories" plot that has been seen before, as this new story is littered with Kindle hyperlinks that when clicked take the reader to the original R.L. Stevenson text, and in some cases, he very cleverly works this original text into his new story, especially where some of the dialogue is concerned, although this latter aspect is much more evident in the sequel, Booksurfers: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. These hyperlinks take a little bit of getting used to as initially I was unsure how they would work (but then again, I am a lifelong reader who is pretty much set in his ways). After clicking on a few of them, and feeling that they distracted a little from the flow of the main Gatward story, I chose instead to ignore the majority of them. However, inquisitive young minds will, I am sure, make much better use of them than I did. What I did do though was as soon as I had finished Dave Gatward's story, I then felt compelled to read the full text of Treasure Island for the umpteenth time. Did I not mention that with the Booksurfers story you also get the full original text? A brilliant idea and a surefire way of encouraging a new generation of readers to read classic stories, without them feeling like they are being told to read them, as I am sure many would do the same as I did.
Treasure Island is one of my all-time favourite books, and I was initially a little concerned as to how I would feel about a modern day story interfering with my beloved classic. I had little to worry about as I loved it, especially with the way that the new characters occasionally interacted with the likes of Jim Hawkins, Blind Pew and Squire Trelawney in order to ensure that the story did not deviate from Stevenson's original.
Of course, when the foursome finally complete their allotted task they discover that Dr Crookshanks is not going to honour his initial promise to set them and their captive parents free, preferring instead to give them a list of other popular books, with an item to retrieve from each one. This leads us straight into the sequel, Booksurfers: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was published at the same time as the first book.(less)
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