The Mystery of Rascal Pratt

Adventure awaits in The Mystery of Rascal Pratt. Young Emma Green thinks she is moving from Rhode Island to the big city of San Francisco with her mother, Mabel, and father, Captain John Green. Instead, she finds that they are moving to Point Bonita, located at the entrance of the San Francisco Bay and close to Sausalito. Furthermore, they will be tending the lighthouse located on Point Bonita. There are very few people living in the area and Emma is very disappointed. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book when Emma is traveling and a boy runs into her chair spilling her tea. It is at this point when we find out that the boy may be a troublemaker and criminal. Young Emma is immediately intrigued by this boy and goes to return the bag he dropped by her chair only to find that it was her very own birthday gift he had stolen. This starts the book with just a bit of foreshadowing that Emma will be meeting new people and enjoying a bit of excitement in her new life.

While tending the lighthouse and walking the grounds of Point Bonita, Emma meets some new friends, Harris Cole, son of Edgar Cole, a local businessman, and Sue, the granddaughter of Achilles, a Native American man who works for Edgar. The three enjoy one another’s company and talk about how it would be fun to solve a mystery. It is not long after that that they find a little abandoned rowboat. When they go to investigate this mysterious boat, they find a boy not much older than they are who is very injured and unconscious. This boy turns out to be Rascal Pratt, a self-proclaimed pirate. The Greens nurse Rascal back to health. From there, the story is all adventure and mystery as Rascal very may well be a fugitive.

The Mystery of Rascal Pratt is the perfect book for fans of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. It will appeal to a variety of age groups from young adult to adult. The setting of this book is beautiful and the author is able to describe the sea, the rocks, the trees, and the other natural structures of the land in a way that the reader will easily envision them. The main characters are fun and likable as kids should be. This book held the essence of the movies Stand By Me and The Goonies while still having a very original storyline. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a good pirate-themed story with action and adventure, and of course, buried treasure. The Mystery of Rascal Pratt is sure to be a winner in homes everywhere.