Customer Reviews

Russell and the Lost Treasure

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wouldn't bring this up, but has it occurred to anyone else that the American picture book market is currently undergoing a virtual flood of high-quality British manuscripts? Consider the facts of the matter. Just last year we had Rob Scotton's nicely droll and shockingly well-publicized, "Russell the Sheep". This year there is yet another book (in addition to fellow British imports, "I'm Not Cute" by Jonathan Allen and "The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon" by Mini Grey) added to the Russell oevre: "Russell and the Lost Treasure". It's hard to resist. Kids like-a the treasure. I think that's where half of the fascination with pirates comes from. Plus you have an already established likable hero and a droll little story to boot. Like its predecessor, "Lost Treasure" isn't going to garner itself any hoity-toity awards this year, but that doesn't stop it from being a perfectly nice and perfectly readable little bundle of joy.

When we last left our hero... he was asleep. Now he is not. Russell is just casually perfecting a rather nice triple somersault when something catches his eye. A crow, clutching The Lost Treasure of Frogsbottom (torn virtually to shreds) passes by and gives Russell ideas. But rather than wrangle the map from the crow (who is never seen again) our sheepish hero and his frog partner Frankie are going to find the treasure themselves. Russell creates a high-tech well-detailed "Super-Duper Treasure Seeker" complete with all-terrain wheels, a flange, and even a well-positioned extending arm. At first it seems as if all is lost and the treasure will never be found, but at the foot of a giant tree the machine begins to beep. Lo and behold, far beneath the tree is a treasure chest of... a bunch of useless stuff. Old costumes, records, and (most importantly) an old camera are found. For fun, Russell and his family dress up in the old clothes and take lots and lots of pictures. In the end, Russell has collected all the photographs into album. And the title on the album cover? The True Frogsbottom Treasure.

Compared to its predecessor, "Russell and the Lost Treasure" has quite a bit of sophistication to it. I liked "Russell the Sheep" well enough, but Scotton has started doing things here that are particularly nice. The last image of the book, for example, takes place at night when everything is lit by candles and fireflies. This gives the sheep a round shiny quality and ends the book on a satisfying note. The pictures duplicate the kind of Wallace and Gromit feel of the first book, but they've a lot more going on.

I'm partly a sucker for any picture book that bothers to put clever little details into its pictures. If an illustrator cares enough about a book to sneak in humorous tidbits for probing eyes, that's enough to win my instant admiration. I'm easy that way. In this book, I was delighted by the schematics of Russell's treasure seeking machine. Behind the finished product is a large blueprint identifying all its different parts. A kid could stare at that picture for hours and probably miss some tiny factoid somewhere. Other details amused me as well. I don't remember if Russell's nightcap played a big part in his first adventure but in this book it sort of takes on a life of its own. No matter what our hero may be doing, his cap (which extends and contracts depending on the scene) is sure to be filling the page in a rather pleasing manner.

All in all, I found myself enjoying "Russell and the Lost Treasure" more than I did "Russell the Sheep". And I suspect that with its vaguely cartoonish illustrations, amusing plot, and likable characters it may certainly prove very popular with kids of every stripe. A keeper.

Marvelous illustrations, heart-warming story. It quickly became a favorite of my young son, who is 2 1/2.

I adore Rob Scotton's works. His illustrations are charming. In this adventure Russell learns that his real treasure is his own family.

Russell is wonderful. My grandchildren loved the first book, so I had to get the others. The artwork is as good as the story. I'm so glad I decided to get them.

The first Russell the sheep book was wonderful, especially as it dealt with insomnia. My son loves both books, and the artwork is very good in both. But I have a slight preference for the first book as it deals with an ongoing challenge with young children (sleep). The "lost treasure" book may be better for the 5 - 7 crowd rather than the 3 - 5 crowd. Either way, it's still a good book.

We like this book well enough. The illustrations are top notch--somewhat similar to Wallace and Gromit. My son loves to trace Russell's long hat all over the page. I'm not sure my children like the story line of this book as much as they like Russell the Sheep. It seems to be missing something but I can't pinpoint what that "something" is. Maybe the story is less ironic than the first or perhaps the lack of Pirates (despite the reference to treasure) make it less appealing to my little ones. I suggest you check out Russell the Sheep first and save this book for later.

You have seen Rob Scotton's work in a wide variety of places--what a pleasure to see him illustrating children's books. Light and zany, you can't help but be charmed by Scotton's characters. The story is short and simple, especially appealing for young readers or listeners, ages 3-5. The illustrations are so good, however, that you wish there was more story to necessitate more pages in the book.

A beautifully illustrated book that held my niece spellbound. The rich artwork and humor also make it a pleasure for any adults who get to read this as a bedtime story. What I like about the Russell series is the little lesson for the kids, in each story. This time, we see Russell learn what is truly valuable in life. At the end of the story, instead of arguing about bedtime, my niece wanted to see our family photo album! We had a `quality' moment that followed directly from storytime and because of that, I had to come write a glowing review!!! Hope some of you have a similar wonderful experience.

My 19 month old finds this the funniest book. He cackles every time we get it out, and wants me to read it over and over again. He cuddles the page with the crow every time and gives Russell a kiss too!

I will start by saying i got this book from my public Library and came here to Amazon to Purchase the rest of the series.

This book INSTANTLY became my newly turned 2 year old boy favorite book. The story, i think is perfect for his age and above and ends with a very nice lesson about family and what is truly treasured. The book is perfectly illustrated and my son points and repeats bits of the story as I go along. He knows EVERY page and will finish the sentence when i leave the last 1 or 2 words off at the end of the page. "Silly bird" His absolute favorite part of the story is the PHOTOS, before i even read a particular page he will say "Steady boys" and repeat it very hapily. Cheers to Rob Scotton and Russell. Lost Treasure is our first book about Russell but we are buying them all.