The Pirate's Coin: A Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventure (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
Upside of time travel: you have a chance to help someone. Downside: if you change something, your best friend could disappear forever.The class assignment was to learn something about your ancestors. Jack discovers, through his great Aunt George, that he is related to Jack Northfleet, a pirate. She even sends him a pirate coin that belonged to him. “This was so Jack. He had something to brag about but didn’t.” Also making a presentation is Kendra, who talks about an ancestor named Phoebe Monroe who was born a slave, but bought her freedom and started a business. Unfortunately, Phoebe is cheated out of her business. Ruthie notices almost immediately that she and Jack have met Phoebe when they've traveled through the Thorne Rooms. She knows that they can find a way to help. As they begin yet another adventure, Ruthie and Jack go to Room A12 in the Thorne Rooms and the coin glows and gets very hot. "What secret enchantment flickered through the Pirate coin?" But when Ruthie and Jack travel back and meet Jack Northfleet, something goes terribly wrong because when they return, no one can see Jack but Ruthie. Have they changed history so that Jack no longer exists? And what will happen if they can't change it back? After their adventures in The Sixty-Eight Rooms and Stealing Magic, Jack and Ruthie are back. They are still interested in having adventures in the rooms (who wouldn't be?), but have a more serious reason to investigate-- during a genealogy project at school, they find out that their friend Kendra is a descendent of a woman who ran a business in the early twentieth century, something rare for an African-American woman at the time. Even though Kenra's ancestor had gotten her formulae from her ancestor, who was a slave, she had no proof. Ruthie and Jack find a book of recipes, but also a cryptic note that they should talk to Isabelle. They do, and find out that she worked with Mrs. Thorne and knows that a will was drawn up clearing Kendra's relative. The will must be in the rooms somewhere, where it was put for safekeeping, and the children need to find it. Jack also wants to find an ancestor of his own-- Jack Norfleet, a pirate! After meeting him, however, Jack starts to fade away, and Ruthie has to go back and set things right so that Jack doesn't cease to exist. Despite a dangerous spider encounter and troubles with museum security, Jack and Ruthie use their time traveling adventures to help solve mysteries in the present day.Strengths: One of the best time travel devices EVER-- miniature rooms that actually exist. Certain objects animate the rooms, and while it's a little unlikely that the children would get in to the museum, a convincing back story has been built. I like the children, and their reasons for being in the rooms are solid. I would have adored these books when I was younger.Weaknesses:The first two in the series don't get checked out very much, so I'm debating purchasing the third. There is a fourth coming out as well, and I don't know that I can justify them. Sigh.
What do You think about The Pirate's Coin: A Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventure (2013)?
Our favorite of the three books in this series! Can't wait for the next one!
—shy
Well written adventure with historical overtones. A quick fun read.
—fathat
