Having read 20 of the 21 Famous Fives and 3 of the 8 Adventure Series books Brodie asked what else there was. I had already suggested The Treasure Hunters some time before and it was rejected, but this time he rejected the Galliano’s Circus books and whatever else I suggested and chose The Treasure Hunters, perhaps thanks to the illustrated Collins spine.

What Brodie knew

I often write about what he didn’t know, or understand but today we’ll have what he “knew”.  I say “knew” because despite his confidence he isn’t always right…

That Jeffrey was the oldest as he was putting stamps into his album and collecting them. He didn’t say as much but I think he was inferring that stamp collecting was a boring activity for people older than he is.

All about secret passages – I know about secret passages into cupboards, it’s just like the one in the Famous Five.

That you should not feed squirrels chocolate. He was very judgmental over them giving the squirrel chocolate in case his teeth fell out – telling me about the highland cow who had eaten popcorn and sweets until his teeth fell out. He meant Callum the Stag who had been fed junk food until his teeth fell out and he had to be put down as he couldn’t eat.

Why Granny was crying – because she has to leave.

That finding the “treasure cup” meant they could drink out of it and have good luck and not leave their house. He announced this as soon as the lucky cup was mentioned and repeated it often through the book. I love how he didn’t focus on them finding valuable treasure which would change their financial situation, but instead was determined that the magic cup would fix everything.

That the treasure cup would be in the box they found in the chimney.

That the treasure cup had been in the box but someone else had already found it. (He rethinks his solutions pretty quickly).

That the box must have had a false top which is why it looks smaller on the inside than it should. (I suggested perhaps it was more likely to have a false bottom, which he quickly agreed with.)

That the map was a treasure map. Well, ok his first response was Huh – just a piece of paper? But I flipped back and showed him the picture at the start of the chapter. It’s a map!… A treasure map!

That JREAFURE spells TREASURE. I spelled out J – R – etc and he was baffled but we went back to look at the illustration again and straight away he said that it was a T (which is impressive as he often gets T, I and J muddled) and from there he quickly realised that it said treasure.

IT SAYS TREASURE he kept telling the children, and was quite annoyed at their inability to figure it out.

That the map must be wrong as it showed four bends and the road only had three.

That the hill had been knocked down, like farmers do – he meant the bits of old railway embankments we’ve seen ploughed through for access.

That it was a river, not a road – mere moments before the children figured it out

That Mr Potts knocked Jeffrey into the water and took his clothes TO GET THE MAP!

That promising to stay in all DAY meant they could sneak out at night – but I did have to say all DAAAYYY a few times before he got it.

That dropping a handkerchief up the wrong passage would send the men the wrong way.

What Brodie did not know

When he wasn’t interrupting with his wild mixture of assertions he was asking questions.

Such as;

What’s a maid?
Is this book too old for torches to exist? His grasp of history is sketchy at best. The other night he asked me if I was alive during WWII…
What’s seccotine? I knew it was glue from The Naughtiest Girl, and so he made the really good point that it would be difficult for them to remove the map from the doll’s house again. I looked it up incase it was a weak or easily dissolved glue but all I could find out was that it was made from fish…
Why would you wake up mad at someone from a dream? Hard to explain, but it’s definitely happened to me!
What’s a lawyer?

Brodie’s opinions

This is a kid who barely ever stops talking so he managed to squeeze in more comments.

He was a little upset that their mother and father weren’t staying with them but that was quickly forgotten.

He was surprised by the three sets of stairs in the house. The house which he called fusty-musty-dusty, by the way.

He was concerned that the man (Mr Potts) wouldn’t bring back the map and at that point didn’t know if he wanted to keep reading as things might go bad.

He was very excited by the lucky cup. As above he kept talking about finding it. When they do find the box he shouted THE LUCKY CUP, they can drink out of it and get rich. He was worried that Mr Potts would catch them and get it from them, but if they could drink from it first maybe money would fall from the sky and they could keep the house. He was very invested in them keeping the house.

He loved them drinking their ginger beer from the lucky cup.

Afterwards he said he did not like Mr Potts at all, he was not a good person, But he liked everyone else. His favourite part was the end part with the secret passages but it was almost too exciting and scary with Mr Potts chasing them.

As for me I never realised how often they say LOVELY until reading it out loud. It seemed like every other sentence, but turns out it was only 34 times in the book but 25 of those are in the first 6 chapters!