The Bassumtyte Treasure

by Jane Louise Curry

Book Overview

When he goes to live with his cousin at the family's ancestral home, a ten-year-old boy finds a secret room and clues that could help unravel the riddle of the family treasure. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689501005
• ISBN13: 9780689501005
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Atheneum Books
• Length: 129 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

wonderful

amazing story that captures reader's imagination. a thrill to read. i was concerned that it was about ghosts, then found it was like time travel. am excited to read more by this author.

A treasure hunt becomes a historical puzzle

One of the best children's adventures written, period. Ten year-old Tommy Bassumtyte is sent across the Atlantic to live with his older British cousin, an old gentry family living in an Elizabethan manor house. Tommy is in possession of an old family rhyme which he thinks may lead to hidden treasure, a treasure his cousin doubts exists. Nevertheless, the undeniable existence of a secret room in the house, coupled with memories of a shadowy incident in the house's distant past, puts Tommy on the seach. But Tommy quickly realizes that the treasure hunt has become a desperate race against time, as the family becomes threatened with loss of the old house due to financial pressure. His older cousin also hopes against hope for treasure, to save the house, but also to solve a gigantic historical mystery. A rather ordinary country home may reveal the secrets of a 16th century conspiracy that altered history. And the house has a ghost......... Curry's book excels on every level. Delightful, caring characters, the romance of buried treasure and secret rooms, the tension of a family's crisis, the sophisticated treatment of actual historical events, and an utterly satisfying conclusion will have bright, thoughtful children ages 9-12 riveted