The Money Pit Mystery

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

While many middle-school readers likely first encountered the alleged
pirate treasure pit on Nova Scotia’s Oak Island in Joan Clark’s The
Hand of Robin Squires (1994), Walters now offers them the opportunity to
become part of today’s search for what may be Captain Kidd’s booty.
Walters posits an alternate theory regarding the treasure’s location,
suggesting that, like magicians who use misdirection to fool audiences,
Kidd created the pit as a ruse and the treasure is actually buried
elsewhere. Interestingly, Walters also utilizes such misdirection in the
book’s title, which suggests the story is a mystery, whereas it is
actually a family-problem novel focusing on the failing mental abilities
of the central juvenile characters’ grandfather.

Following a three-year absence caused by a spat between their mother,
Becky, and grandfather, amateur magician Sam Simmons, 11, and his sister
Beth, 13, accompanied by their mother, return to their grandfather’s
home on Oak Island where they find a forgetful Grandpa Simmons behaving
most bizarrely. Resisting all efforts to have him see a doctor, Grandpa
remains fixated on finding the pit’s treasure. Meanwhile, Sam
discovers the misdirection “key” in his grandfather’s treasure map
and ascertains the fortune’s real location.

Walters’s characters ring true: Sam and Beth fight like real
siblings; Beth’s infatuation with islander Buzz accurately reflects
adolescent romance’s transitory nature; Becky realistically worries
about her aging father’s declining mental state, while Grampa
recognizes and comes to terms with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
Recommended.