Family and friends recently took a trip down to the coast. I’ve always heard of beach reads, but I’ve never actually read anything while sitting on the beach. This was my chance! I loaded up my waterproof Kobo with some appropriate reading. Enter, Treasure Island.
Somehow, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and I had always passed one another, like…TWO SHIPS IN THE NIGHT. But even though I missed this book in my childhood, it certainly had all of the danger and wonder that make a classic children’s book. What a fun read.
The protagonist of Treasure Island is the young yet oak-spined Jim Hawkins. Hawkins is the son of a couple of inn-keepers on a quiet coast town. They are living a quiet life until a rum-soaked pirate shows up and overstays his welcome. Other characters of ill-repute show up looking for the pirate guest, and violence ensues. No thanks to the fearful small-town residents, Jim and his family escape. With a pirate’s treasure map, no less!
Jim gives the treasure map to some local leaders in the next town over, and they decide to go on a treasure hunt themselves, taking Jim along. Also coming along – one Long John Silver, a local pub-owner and cook. One can imagine what happens when an inexperienced group of treasure hunters set sail for a deserted and dangerous island. And it all happens!
I admired the pluckiness of young Jim Hawkins. He’ll stand up to anyone (Captain America style) and do the right thing no matter what. I also enjoyed Long John Silver and his anti-hero ways. The reader never quite knows what he is up to. He is not a righteous man, but he is a memorable one.
Highly recommend to anyone, whether they’re on a beach or would like to imagine that they are.
