Lost Treasures of the Pirates of the Caribbean

by James A. Owen, James A. Owen (Illustrator), Jeremy Owen, Lon Saline (With), Mary McCray (With)

Overview

For centuries, the lore of swashbuckling pirates have captured our imaginations. But pirates really did exist, and they hid treasure in secret coves, on unknown islands, and in abandoned ports. And to keep track of their treasure, they made maps—crude, hand drawn maps that sometimes even the pirates themselves couldn’t read. But that all changed when the buccaneer Henry Morgan hired silversmith Elijah McGee to draw his treasure maps; this led to a dynasty of mapmakers. Until now, no one has been able to tell if McGee’s maps really have clues to a lost treasure. But if the maps are real, then maybe the clues are, too. Here are actual maps of the pirates of the Caribbean, based on McGee’s maps, and accompanied by stories of real pirates. Is there anyone who is pirate enough to decipher the clues in these maps and find the actual hidden treasure?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442430938
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	06/07/2011
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

James A. Owen is the author of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series, the creator of the critically acclaimed Starchild graphic novel series, and the author of the Mythworld series of novels. He is also founder and executive director of Coppervale International, a comic book company that also publishes magazines and develops and produces television and film projects. He lives in Arizona. Visit him at HereThereBeDragons.net.

James A. Owen is the author of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series, the creator of the critically acclaimed Starchild graphic novel series, and the author of the Mythworld series of novels. He is also founder and executive director of Coppervale International, a comic book company that also publishes magazines and develops and produces television and film projects. He lives in Arizona. Visit him at HereThereBeDragons.net.

Jeremy Owen has worked as a stonemason, a carpenter, an artist, a writer, an animatronics engineer, and more. He is collaborating with his brother James on several illustrated books, and is working on his first novel. He lives with his family in Silvertown, Arizona, where he currently works as the production manager at the Coppervale Studio.

Editorial Reviews

Although no one disputes the existence of pirates, their colorful histories are embellished with so many legends that the truth of their adventures cannot be fully known. That pirates hid some of their loot and made maps to get back to it is considered factual. Three generations of silversmiths, the McGees, are credited with drawing treasure maps to the pirates' specifications. These purported maps were recently sold at auction and acquired by the Owen brothers. Illustrations of thirteen of these maps are featured in the book, appearing in bright red-and-black lettering and accents. The maps are historically accurate for the time period, but do not include the X's marking buried treasures. The brief text facing the maps on each page presents the history of pirating and some black line drawings of the best known pirates. It is not clear why the page that describes the most infamous pirate, Blackbeard, has a picture of Captain Charles Vane who is not mentioned anywhere in the text; no picture of Blackbeard appears in the book. Keys of different shapes with two letters of the alphabet written near them appear under each page of text. These, combined with clues within the maps themselves, supposedly lead to the discovery of the fourteenth map which is not in the book, but claimed to be found at the Simon and Schuster web site. The web site information given for entering the answer to the riddle was not operative at the time of this review. The book may be of possible interest to young readers who want to explore areas of pirating activities.

Children's Literature - Phyllis Kennemer

In a seamless blend of fact and fancy, the author delivers a quick, name-dropping history of piracy's golden age in the Caribbean, along with the enticing news that many of those buccaneers commissioned treasure maps from a family of Charleston mapmakers. Thirteen of these purported maps are reproduced in lurid red and black-and though they appear to be standard large-scale depictions of entire islands or major swathes of Africa, readers are assured that clues to the location of buried treasure are there to be found. Further enhanced by leering portraits of John Rackham, George Lowther and three other pirate captains, plus a closing riddle that, combined with earlier hints, promises to lead to a 14th map, this is too sketchy to keep fans of historical pirates engrossed for long, but should find a ready audience among budding code-breakers. (Nonfiction. 10-12)

Kirkus Reviews