Kristina Jean Lareau's Reviews > The Story of the Treasure Seekers

Full of treasure-seeking Victorian book references, this book is a fun read. Although I couldn't help but read in two minds: 1. These are very naughty children (especially in Victorian terms) but also 2. these are adventurous and creative children. The contrast caught me frequently. Oswald narrates but uses both "I" and third person and privileges his own "noble" qualities and frequently dictates proper vs. rude behavior, that girls shan't be given all the freedoms as boys, and that equality among the 6 siblings is determined by whose idea for play they are enacting. It is their childhood innocence ( not that I believe in it, but that is how it is presented in the novel), that saves the "fallen fortunes of the house of Barnstable".

It is fun to see references to Little Lord Fauntleroy, Jungle Books, Tom Brown's Schooldays and Children of the New Forest.