Alvin Fernald's Incredible Buried Treasure

Alvin Fernald #10

by Clifford B. Hicks, Jolly Roger Bradfield (Illustrator)

Alvin, Shoie, and Daphne help a professor figure out a coded message in hopes of finding a copy of the Gettysburg Address written by Abraham Lincoln himself, and hidden by Caleb, a former slave who later lived in the White House.

Genres: History

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Hicks was born in Marshalltown, Iowa in 1920. He graduated cum laude from Northwestern University, then served as a U.S. Marine during World War II, earning the Silver Star. In 1945, he joined the staff of Popular Mechanics magazine, and became a special projects editor in 1963. He wrote the magazine's Do-It-Yourself Materials Guide and edited the Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia.

In 1959, Hicks penned his first children's book, First Boy on the Moon, which was dubbed Best Juvenile Book of the Year by the Friends of American Writers. The next year, he wrote The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald, the first of a series of books about a boy who relies on his "Magnificent Brain" to solve problems. The books inspired a pair of two-part Disney television movies: The Whiz Kid and the Mystery at Riverton (1974), and The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper (1976).

Hicks wrote one non-fiction children's book, The World Above (1965), which discusses the Earth's atmosphere and the universe beyond. In 1971, he began the Peter Potts series, which follows the misadventures of a small town boy who often gets into trouble "by accident". Hicks also wrote a two-act play, Alvin Fernald, Mayor for a Day (1992), which was based on one of his Alvin Fernald books.

On September 29, 2010, Hicks died at his home in Brevard, North Carolina at the age of 90.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffor...

Reviews

[Marni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essentially, the first half of this book is a journal of a former slave who later lived with Lincoln in the White House and lived a full life after. I read it with Isaac, and he and I were both researching to see if anything was true. Sadly, no, but that alone was a very intriguing story. The journal is read to Alvin, Daphne, and Shoie, and they help with a search for treasures mentioned in it. Fun story, and we learned history along the way.

[Rachel Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd read all the earlier Alvin Fernald books as a kid, so my husband had to get me this one when he saw that one had been published "recently" in 2009! This one's pretty different -- the Alvin Fernald part is just a framing story around the story of a young escaped slave during (and following) the Civil War, which you could tell is what Hicks really wanted to write about this time. It was done pretty well and was a pleasant, nostalgic read.

Alvin Fernald, Superweasel is still the best of the older ones though.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alvin is back, al0ng with Shoie and the Pest and this time they are trying to find Buried Treasure that contains Lincoln's personal copy of the Gettysburg Address. What I found most interesting was that 60% of this book is a narrative about an escaped slave that went to live w/ Lincoln and his life following, it was really good, interesting and kept me riveted. The actual part of the story w/ Alvin and his crew was rather short with not much tension, action or adventure but I loved the story and it was fun to spend time with these characters again. Highly recommended.

[Cyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Hicks's final Alvin book, published when he was 89. Good history lesson (Lincoln and Gettysburg) along with the usual Alvin shenanigans.

[Mackenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kids loved the Alvin parts, Caleb's story was good but not as funny so they wishes for more Alvin/less Caleb. We'll be checking out the earlier books in the series for sure.