Treasure of the Golden Skull by Chris Priestly is pretty silly stuff and the author just embraces it whole-heartedly.  The protagonists aren’t the brightest of characters and they feel a bit like young versions of Laurel and Hardy–albeit talkative versions. Mr. Priestly has plentiful illustrations and all the characters look like distant relatives of the Adams Family.  This is a good book for those young readers moving up from chapter books, as it has a generous-sized font, the fun illustrations, and short chapters.  Some books targeting this age demographic and in this light style are skimpy on the grammar and vocabulary, but the vocabulary in this book will make the young reader stretch and the humor is simultaneously slapstick and tongue-in-cheek.  Because there are pirates involved there is plentiful pirate dialogue (aarghs, ahoys, etc.) so this could be a fun read-aloud–and that might help with the more sophisticated language.  This is the second book in the series and can be read without reading the first one, although there are references to action from the prior book that are a little confusing but not too critical. Treasure of the Golden Skull is for those who don’t like their literature too serious or stuffy.

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  Characters are hit upon a few occasions by falling objects, sometimes resulting in unconsciousness; character knocked unconscious; characters tied up; 2 separate reports that people have spontaneously combusted (one false and one apparently true); reference to deaths in first book in the series; verbal threats to walk the plank; general references to piracy; stand-off/skirmish with weapons, brief with no description (no injuries).

Sex/Nudity:  Woman reminisces about her lost love; man reminisces about his lost love; woman and man embrace and kiss.

Mature Subject Matter:

Piracy; theft.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None