The Rescue Princesses 7 – The Lost Gold

Paula Harrison's The Lost Gold is a Rescue Princesses treasure hunt for 7 year olds, set in a rain forest that's being chopped down.

What happens

Princess Isabella lives in the palace of Belatina, with the forest right outside the gate. Her best friend is Petro, a little brown monkey she found alone as a baby (he's refused to go back to the wild ever since).

She's out trying to photograph a blue butterfly when she hears banging. In a brand new clearing, a gang of men are sawing down trees. One of them chases off a wild monkey who only climbed up for fruit.

Isabella races home to tell her parents. But King Victor already knows. The men are treasure hunters, looking for gold that was hidden in the forest over a hundred years ago. They've offered him half, so a few trees don't worry him much.

So Isabella presses the yellow jewel on her ring and calls the other Rescue Princesses. Lottie, Amina and Rosalind arrive the very next morning. Their plan is simple. Find the gold first, and the treasure hunters will have no reason to cut down anything else.

Isabella is lovely company. She's been practising her ninja moves every day and she STILL trips over tree roots, so you can't help cheering her on. When the treasure hunters turn up at the palace, she keeps them there with chocolate cake, then banana-nut bread, then mango ice cream. Who knew stalling could be so delicious?

Petro steals plenty of scenes too (the men's truck keys somehow end up in the fountain). And there's a proper puzzle to crack, an old scroll with a riddle and tiny monkey faces drawn over some of the letters.

It's worth knowing that the treasure hunters turn nasty. They shout threats across the river at the girls, and they start chopping down a tree with a frightened baby monkey clinging to the top. A very soft-hearted animal lover might want you close by for that bit. Most will just be desperate to see what the princesses do next.

This is the seventh Rescue Princesses book. Isabella first met Lottie, Amina and Rosalind at a royal dance festival in The Magic Rings, so that's a good place to start with this gang.

What to read next

If your reader wants another forest in trouble, try The Amber Necklace. It's a Rescue Princesses story with a different group of girls, where shy Princess Zina tries to stop workers cutting down the trees her lemurs need for food.