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Accidental Detectives #7
Race for the Park Street Treasure
As Ricky and his friends search for a treasure buried long ago by a tightwad business tycoon, Ricky sees how ugly--and dangerous--the depths of greed can become.
132 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1991
About the author
Sigmund Brouwer
256 books410 followersSigmund loves going to schools to get kids excited about reading, reaching roughly 80,000 students a year through his Rock&Roll Literacy Show.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 1, 2025
Pagaidām labākā grāmata šajā bērnu detektīvu sērijā, bet šī nav tikusi tulkota latviski.
Tiesa gan, 90 -tie gadi atklājas savā krāšņumā. Lielākais ļaundaris draud ar šaujamo pusaudzim, sagadīšanās pēc iešauj griestos, puikam virsū uzkrīt daļa griestu, tā ka viņš zaudē samaņu, bet ļaundaris pēc tam nožēlo izdarīto un tāpēc mēs viņam piedodam un pat neziņojam policijai. Oukei. 😂
Tiesa gan, 90 -tie gadi atklājas savā krāšņumā. Lielākais ļaundaris draud ar šaujamo pusaudzim, sagadīšanās pēc iešauj griestos, puikam virsū uzkrīt daļa griestu, tā ka viņš zaudē samaņu, bet ļaundaris pēc tam nožēlo izdarīto un tāpēc mēs viņam piedodam un pat neziņojam policijai. Oukei. 😂
June 25, 2024
Race for the Park Street Treasure, clocking in as number seven in The Accidental Detectives series, effortlessly holds its title as the best book of the series. Sigmund Brouwer hits every single note with ease, and many big-name mystery writers have never put together something as solid as this little 130-page kids mystery.
Bored on a Saturday morning in September, Ricky Kidd, Mike Andrews, and Ralphy Zee launch a watermelon across town and manage to accidentally destroy the new statue of famed Jamesville miser Fred “Moth-Wallet” Bugsby on the day of its dedication, which ends in all three of them being forced to perform community service. Ricky ends up sorting old books in the library basement but is shocked to discover a treasure map to Moth-Wallet’s legendary hidden treasure, prompting him and his friends to begin a desperate search for the gold. However, the rest of the town also learns of the treasure map, and kids become locked in a deadly race with Moth-Wallet’s elderly daughter Ethel to find the treasure. Along the way, they learn some shocking secrets about Moth-Wallet’s real legacy, encounter a legendary blues musician who teaches them about greed, and risk their lives to find a treasure that may not even exist.
Brouwer takes us back to Jamesville in Race for the Park Street Treasure, which always results in an awesome story, spinning a fast-paced action plot that takes place almost exclusively on a series of Saturday mornings with a crisp autumn atmosphere. Beginning with the all-time greatest cold open out of all The Accidental Detectives books (featuring a watermelon catapulted across town by a wheelbarrow-slingshot only to crash into the middle of a library dedication ceremony), Race for the Park Street Treasure is an example of Brouwer’s ability to pace his stories flawlessly, never letting anything move too quickly or too slowly. The plot unfolds through a variety of serious realizations, heart-pounding action scenes, and funny interludes, creating a great deal of suspense by pitting the kids against the entire town in a race that causes some people to become murderously greedy. The primary villain, Old Lady Ethel Bugsby, is as formidable a villain as we’ve seen yet, and her cackling smugness gives Ricky the extra push he needs to think hard about how to foil her. We get a heart-stopping scene where the gang narrowly avoids being run over by a train, as well as the usual brilliant detective-Ricky deductions.
Amid the frantic pace of the treasure hunt, Brouwer performs his usual magic by highlighting the simple joys of childhood adventures and imagination, made better because his story involves those imaginings coming to life. As he always does in his best Accidental Detectives books, Brouwer also highlights the friendships between Ricky, Mike, Ralphy, and Lisa (and Joel), which forms the heart of the whole series. Here, we see Ricky and Mike driven to animosity by their greed, Ralphy’s steely-eyed determination to keep their friendship from falling apart, Ricky and Lisa’s leisurely attraction, Joel’s uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time — all the components that makes The Accidental Detectives such a stellar series (kind of in the vein of Stand by Me). Undercutting the themes of these heartfelt friendships is the character of Ernie “Stonewall” Sawyer, a blind former blues musician whose fame has turned to reclusion but who teaches and learns from the kids. Brouwer knew what he was doing when he wrote Stonewall Sawyer, and his description of the gang’s reaction the first time they hear the blues has stuck with me all my life.
As usual, Brouwer continues his Christian messages with Race for the Park Street Treasure, focusing on the temptation of wealth and the destructive nature of greed. In the first actual appearance of Ricky’s parents Sam and Stephanie as more than background characters, we get a fantastic passage about “the theory of sadness,” delving into some pretty meaningful ideas such as, “Is love worth it if it only causes pain in the end? Can we trust the unchangeable nature of God? What kind of legacy does God want us to leave behind?” Brouwer handles each question with aplomb, and the story benefits greatly from his inclusion of deeper material.
Of course, it’s not The Accidental Detectives without some hilarious exploits, and Brouwer includes plenty of those. The watermelon sequence is, as I’ve mentioned, probably the best in the series, and it does double-duty by also introducing most of the main characters and establishing the plot immediately. Another running gag is Ralphy’s hiccups, which is distinctly reminiscent of The Andy Griffith Show and features dozens of attempted remedies for his hiccups (which, it turns out, can only be cured by thinking he’s lost a fortune). Ricky’s narration is characteristically sarcastic and witty, and his isolation-induced madness that causes him to talk to himself in the library basement is hilarious.
You won’t find a better kids mystery than Race for the Park Street Treasure. The characters get some of their best development yet, and the mystery is truly surprising and harrowing in equal parts. Between the clever storytelling, hilarious subplots, and masterful life lessons, Brouwer really outdoes himself and demonstrates that The Accidental Detectives series only gets better the more he writes.
Bored on a Saturday morning in September, Ricky Kidd, Mike Andrews, and Ralphy Zee launch a watermelon across town and manage to accidentally destroy the new statue of famed Jamesville miser Fred “Moth-Wallet” Bugsby on the day of its dedication, which ends in all three of them being forced to perform community service. Ricky ends up sorting old books in the library basement but is shocked to discover a treasure map to Moth-Wallet’s legendary hidden treasure, prompting him and his friends to begin a desperate search for the gold. However, the rest of the town also learns of the treasure map, and kids become locked in a deadly race with Moth-Wallet’s elderly daughter Ethel to find the treasure. Along the way, they learn some shocking secrets about Moth-Wallet’s real legacy, encounter a legendary blues musician who teaches them about greed, and risk their lives to find a treasure that may not even exist.
“Grown-ups are lucky. Their lives aren’t restricted to being lived on Saturdays. But us kids, that’s a different matter. School days are on one side, Sundays with all the after-church family visits that drive a guy nuts on the other side. Only Saturdays give us the freedom to do what we want.”
Brouwer takes us back to Jamesville in Race for the Park Street Treasure, which always results in an awesome story, spinning a fast-paced action plot that takes place almost exclusively on a series of Saturday mornings with a crisp autumn atmosphere. Beginning with the all-time greatest cold open out of all The Accidental Detectives books (featuring a watermelon catapulted across town by a wheelbarrow-slingshot only to crash into the middle of a library dedication ceremony), Race for the Park Street Treasure is an example of Brouwer’s ability to pace his stories flawlessly, never letting anything move too quickly or too slowly. The plot unfolds through a variety of serious realizations, heart-pounding action scenes, and funny interludes, creating a great deal of suspense by pitting the kids against the entire town in a race that causes some people to become murderously greedy. The primary villain, Old Lady Ethel Bugsby, is as formidable a villain as we’ve seen yet, and her cackling smugness gives Ricky the extra push he needs to think hard about how to foil her. We get a heart-stopping scene where the gang narrowly avoids being run over by a train, as well as the usual brilliant detective-Ricky deductions.
Amid the frantic pace of the treasure hunt, Brouwer performs his usual magic by highlighting the simple joys of childhood adventures and imagination, made better because his story involves those imaginings coming to life. As he always does in his best Accidental Detectives books, Brouwer also highlights the friendships between Ricky, Mike, Ralphy, and Lisa (and Joel), which forms the heart of the whole series. Here, we see Ricky and Mike driven to animosity by their greed, Ralphy’s steely-eyed determination to keep their friendship from falling apart, Ricky and Lisa’s leisurely attraction, Joel’s uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time — all the components that makes The Accidental Detectives such a stellar series (kind of in the vein of Stand by Me). Undercutting the themes of these heartfelt friendships is the character of Ernie “Stonewall” Sawyer, a blind former blues musician whose fame has turned to reclusion but who teaches and learns from the kids. Brouwer knew what he was doing when he wrote Stonewall Sawyer, and his description of the gang’s reaction the first time they hear the blues has stuck with me all my life.
As usual, Brouwer continues his Christian messages with Race for the Park Street Treasure, focusing on the temptation of wealth and the destructive nature of greed. In the first actual appearance of Ricky’s parents Sam and Stephanie as more than background characters, we get a fantastic passage about “the theory of sadness,” delving into some pretty meaningful ideas such as, “Is love worth it if it only causes pain in the end? Can we trust the unchangeable nature of God? What kind of legacy does God want us to leave behind?” Brouwer handles each question with aplomb, and the story benefits greatly from his inclusion of deeper material.
Of course, it’s not The Accidental Detectives without some hilarious exploits, and Brouwer includes plenty of those. The watermelon sequence is, as I’ve mentioned, probably the best in the series, and it does double-duty by also introducing most of the main characters and establishing the plot immediately. Another running gag is Ralphy’s hiccups, which is distinctly reminiscent of The Andy Griffith Show and features dozens of attempted remedies for his hiccups (which, it turns out, can only be cured by thinking he’s lost a fortune). Ricky’s narration is characteristically sarcastic and witty, and his isolation-induced madness that causes him to talk to himself in the library basement is hilarious.
You won’t find a better kids mystery than Race for the Park Street Treasure. The characters get some of their best development yet, and the mystery is truly surprising and harrowing in equal parts. Between the clever storytelling, hilarious subplots, and masterful life lessons, Brouwer really outdoes himself and demonstrates that The Accidental Detectives series only gets better the more he writes.
January 20, 2020
When sorting books in the basement of the town library, Ricky Kidd stumbles on what he thinks might be a treasure map. Soon, the entire town is buzzing about it, and the race is on to find the treasure that the town miser hid before his death. Can Ricky and his friends find the treasure first? Is there even a treasure to find?
It’s been a while since I first read this series or revisited the characters, but I quickly fell back under their spell. The characters are absolutely wonderful with hints at hidden layers. The plot is strong with wonderful clues and twists before the end. And there are some great laughs and nice thoughtful moments along the way as well. The target middle grade audience will love it, and any mystery reader will enjoy it as well.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
It’s been a while since I first read this series or revisited the characters, but I quickly fell back under their spell. The characters are absolutely wonderful with hints at hidden layers. The plot is strong with wonderful clues and twists before the end. And there are some great laughs and nice thoughtful moments along the way as well. The target middle grade audience will love it, and any mystery reader will enjoy it as well.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews