While all children enjoy books filled with action, boys in particular seem to like books filled with heroes, villains and adventure. These robust stories often contain swashbuckling characters, spine-tingling sword fights and hair-raising plots. Frequently these books have plotlines with treacherous pirates and tales of sunken treasure.
In 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a novel with these thrilling scenes. It is sometimes noted in lists of the 100 greatest books ever written. The name of this special novel is "Treasure Island."
The Admiral Benbow Inn sits near the sea. The Hawkins family manages the modest business. Since Mr. Hawkins is quite ill and near death, his young son Jim has many responsibilities.
One day a frightful-looking sailor named Captain Billy Bones appears at the inn. Coarse and vulgar, the Captain drinks heavily and seems to harbor a deep secret. He closely guards a trunk in his room and pays Jim to be on the lookout for another sailor with a peg leg.
After a few weeks another terrifying buccaneer named Black Dog arrives. A threatening conversation between the scoundrels takes place and soon a swordfight breaks out. Black Dog barely escapes with his life, but the captain is badly shaken.
The local physician, Dr. Livesey, visits the dying Mr. Hawkins one last time and becomes aware of the strange Captain Bones and his mysterious treasures. The pirates threaten to attack the Captain at 10 p.m. that night to open his footlocker.
After they have left, Bones is so distraught that he dies from apoplectic stroke. Jim and his mother run to the Captain’s room and open the footlocker. They find all manner of gold coins from many nations and Mrs. Hawkins is determined to get back the money that Bones owes her. But Jim hears a mob of pirates breaking into the inn and tells his mother to flee. The last thing he takes from the chest is an oilskin packet.
The leader of the thieves is a blinded sailor named Pew. He curses his men and tells them to find the Hawkinses. Flailing about in the dark, the desperados are about to find Jim and his mother, but a group of horsemen surge over a nearby hill and frighten the pirates - all except the blind, evil Pew who is tromped to death by one of the chargers.
The next day Jim visits Dr. Livesey and a well-to-do country gentleman named Trelawney. The older men open up the packet and take out a document containing an extensive financial ledger and a map of an island with buried treasure. Livesey and Trelawney agree at once to make a sea voyage to Treasure Island. They feel it will be easy to find the treasure with the map. Both decide to take Jim along as a cabin boy.
The naive Trelawney buys a ship and prepares for the voyage. One of the first sailors he hires is a man with a peg leg. His name is Long John Silver. He has long awaited some fool to hire him for this treasure voyage. The ship casts off on what will be an action-packed, murderous adventure.
"Treasure Island" is a must-read classic for children. Robert Louis Stevenson has created a number of unforgettable characters in this gripping novel. He also interjects some interesting moral observations throughout the story.
But most children will simply have a rollicking good time reading the book. Just remember "Fifteen men on The Dead Man’s Chest, Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum." Aarrgh, you’re a pirate!
