ALA Booklist

In this bracing mystery adventure, eleven-year-old Tony is tempted by some tantalizing local lore to go in search of a possible treasure hidden on one of the islands in Long Island Sound, where Tony is learning to sail. A solid, neatly plotted, and fast-moving yarn.

Horn Book

In this bracing mystery adventure, eleven-year-old Tony is tempted by some tantalizing local lore to go in search of a possible treasure hidden on one of the islands in Long Island Sound, where Tony is learning to sail. A solid, neatly plotted, and fast-moving yarn.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

The Newbery Honor author offers a potent brew of mystery and adventure in this tale of an 11-year-old boy involved in a search for a centuries-old shipwreck. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-- Tony Souza, 11, uses his paper route earnings to buy a 12-foot sailboat that he takes with him when he spends part of the summer with his grandmother on the Connecticut shore. During his stay, he learns to sail and becomes intrigued by tales of buried treasure in the area. He and his grandmother learn more about the treasure, and he begins to piece together clues to its whereabouts. As he hunts, Tony encounters a couple who are illegally diving for the treasure, and they warn him away from their boat with an attack on his sailboat. After being lost in a storm, he puts together the final clues only to be captured by the villains and then, predictably, rescued in the nick of time. While this brief novel begins with a 1777 shipwreck that precipitates the modern story, the events of past and present are too neatly drawn together. The characterization and suspense of Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Orchard, 1990) are absent here. Even so, for readers in search of an accessible adventure story, this will provide satisfaction. --Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie