World of Adventure 10 – The Treasure of El Patron

Gary Paulsen's The Treasure of El Patron is a diving adventure for 10 year olds about a boy hunting a Bermuda reef for the shipwreck his father never found.

What happens

Tag Jones is thirteen. He runs a little bait shack on the beach and wears his dad's old Spanish gold coin on a chain round his neck.

His dad was one of the best divers on the island. He died in a diving accident, and Tag is sure the treasure he was searching for is still down there on Tiger Head reef.

Then old Gamell at the dive shop shows him something he's kept hidden for years. It's a ship's list, more than three hundred years old, from a Spanish galleon called El Patrón that went down in a hurricane.

So Tag and his best mate Cowboy head out to the reef at night. Tag finds a pewter spoon in a hole in the coral. Then a moray eel bites the end of his thumb off (ouch!).

At the same time, two odd tourists who clearly know nothing about fishing pay the boys to find something they "dropped" in the water. It's wrapped in yellow plastic. And it isn't lost property.

It's a quick read, with short chapters that nearly all end on something happening. The diving detail feels real too. Pinching your nose on the way down, not racing to the surface, what a feeding frenzy looks like. There are even proper diving safety tips after the story.

This one does sit at the top end for its shelf. The package turns out to be drugs, and the men who want it back are dangerous. There are guns, a switchblade, threats made against Tag's mum and a bomb. Some of the island's teenagers use "bad magic" dolls to frighten him too.

For a younger or more anxious reader that's probably a lot. If your reader is already happy with a proper crime-and-danger story, it's a fast, exciting one with a hero who won't give up on his dad's dream.

Tag's friendship with Cowboy is a big part of the fun. Cowboy's in it for the money and moans the whole way, but he never leaves Tag on his own.

What to read next

If they're after another boy who's lost his dad and found a grown-up friend to look out for him, Gary Paulsen's Skydive! is in the library too. Jesse is thirteen and helps out at a small airfield, counting the days until he's old enough to jump.