2 out of 4 stars
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Treasure Bay is a young adult book by Don Lackey. It is the first book in The Tradewind Series. The story follows the members of the West family who suddenly inherit a sailboat from their distant uncle. Their adventures begin on the road from Kansas to the Gulf Coast, where they receive the boat and meet the captain. As the family adjusts to life on the coast, the eldest son Jon finds two things that are worth his time – treasure and a pretty girl.
The pages of Treasure Bay abound with adventure, history, geography, and family fun. The author combined an excellent mix of themes for this story. The book had an educational edge to it because of this. It included navigational insights, boat facts, and small tidbits of Native American history. Most of the story also focused on enjoyable mini-adventures such as the road trip, hunting for treasure, and catching shrimp. This was quite refreshing as most adventure books I have read focused on one main adventure.
I also liked the uniqueness of the characters in this book. Moca West is Native American and certain elements of her culture were portrayed in the story such as the significance of dreams. Quintana’s father is Greek and an element of his culture was also portrayed in the form of ouzo, a Greek liquor. Destrehan was described as Cajun and his accent was captured in the dialogue. The mix of these different cultures was a great aspect of this book.
Unfortunately, I had a few issues with the story. Firstly, the West family was described as consisting of four children and their mother. Each child was described in the first chapter. In chapter 4, another child, Heather, is added to the story. At first, I thought she was a friend, but it was later revealed in chapter 5 that she was part of the family when they were discussing hereditary features. Secondly, Jon once thought about a girl named Talia and he decided to spend more time with her, but there is no other character in the book by that name. This was confusing.
Furthermore, there was a group of sinister truckers in the story that seemed to be keeping tabs on the West family, but their intentions were never revealed. In addition to this, the children’s father has been missing for two years, but despite the numerous references to him, he was not reunited with the family at the end of the book like I expected. I know this book is the first story in a series, but nothing was resolved in the story and this left me feeling dissatisfied at the end of the book.
Additionally, there were many errors in this book including spelling errors, typos, lack of articles and prepositions, the absence of quotation marks, and broken sentences. This book was definitely not professionally edited. Based on the multitude of errors and the issues I mentioned before, I rate it 2 out of 4 stars. Once this book is edited, it will be enjoyable to all young adult readers, especially sailing fans.
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Treasure Bay
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