Captain Awesome and the Mummy’s Treasure

Stan Kirby's Captain Awesome and the Mummy's Treasure is a museum adventure for 5 year olds about a riddle, a trail of clues and a security guard who seems VERY suspicious.

What happens

It starts with Ms Beasley announcing a surprise field trip. She won't say where. She just gives the class a riddle about a very cool place full of very old things.

Everyone guesses. Pink Palace Park. A clam farm. Charlie is hoping for Cheese King Land (there isn't one, but a kid can dream).

It turns out to be the Sunnyview Art and History Museum. There's a T. rex in the lobby called George, and a guide who says they might find some treasure!

That's all Eugene, Charlie and Sally need to hear. In the Egypt room they spot a stone carving of men burying a chest. Eugene thinks it might be the first comic book ever. They're sure it's a map.

So on go the capes, and off they go after the clues.

It's a whistle-stop tour of a real museum, Squad style. Greek statues (the Greeks made toilets out of marble, apparently). A room full of knights. An art gallery with a completely blank canvas, which Eugene improves by sticking up his own drawing with chewing gum!

The best bit is a Seurat painting that's just dots close up and a boat from across the room. If your reader has never noticed that trick, they might want to try it.

All the while a grumpy security guard is following them with a torch. To Eugene he's obviously the Freeze Tagger.

A small heads-up. The three of them wander off from their class without telling anyone and spend the trip hiding from the guard. It's all a joke. Before a real museum trip with a little one, though, a quick chat might be worth it (just in case).

There's Mom and field trips, American style. This is the fifteenth Captain Awesome book, and it stands alone.

What to read next

If they enjoy a class trip that goes sideways, Captain Awesome and the Missing Elephants takes the same class to the zoo, where Eugene's favourite animals are nowhere to be seen.