Secret Agent Jack Stalwart: Book 2: The Search for the Sunken Treasure: Australia [Paperback]

Elizabeth Singer Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up | Series: Secret Agent Jack Stalwart

In one of his most daring exploits, Jack goes down under -- literally -- to investigate the disappearance of a diver off the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Using everything in his backpack arsenal from anti-puke pills to a morphing suit, an egg-shaped submarine to Disappearing Milk, he exposes a deadly nest of pirates raiding a shipwreck site. Jack has to thwart their schemes, evade their attempts on his life, and escape the primordial hunger of three deadly species: a Komodo dragon, a set of sharks, and the most poisonous predators in the reef, the Irukandji jellyfish. Can he save the treasure and the diver, not to mention himself? Canny and resourceful, Jack will delight readers and impress their parents.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elizabeth Singer Hunt is originally from New Orleans and now lives in San Francisco. She moved to the UK in 1999 to pursue an MA in Southeast Asian Studies and then worked in brand marketing. Inspired by her love of travel and the birth of her son, she created the Jack Stalwart series.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Weinstein Books (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602860025
• ISBN-13: 978-1602860025
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Singer Hunt is the author of the wildly popular Secret Agent Jack Stalwart series for younger readers. The series has been named a 'must read' for boys by the British Education Secretary and was selected for inclusion in the Richard and Judy Children's Book Club (UK; 2007). Recently, it was serialized by the BBC Radio 4's Big Toe Books program.

The author lives with her family in northern California. For more information about Elizabeth and the Jack Stalwart series, visit www.jackstalwart.com.

Photo copyright David Peters 2008.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not at all like the first book in the series, October 29, 2009

By 

a.b. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret Agent Jack Stalwart: Book 2: The Search for the Sunken Treasure: Australia (Paperback)

I liked the first Jack Stalwart book. It was a harmless, fun, easy chapter book like The Magic Treehouse series or the Dinosaur Cove series, although it did lack any educational value...

This one, on the other hand, was totally different. Filled with weapons and bad guys and kidnapping and attackers and what I thought was an inappropriate portrayal of a female pirate... (For example, Jack is shot with a poison spear and put in a cage, his friend is put in a cage with a Komodo (sp?) dragon to be eaten, the female pirate is drawn with an exaggerated large chest and repeats vapid statements like "we will kill you") My 7 year old was scared and I didn't enjoy reading it at all. There are so many nice chapter books for kids in this age range that teach history and science along with the storyline and don't include guns, spears, kidnapping and violence. Like I said, the Magic Treehouse and Dinosaur Cove books are great and The Magic School Bus series is fantastic. I was definitely misled by the first book in this series which was harmless fun - this one was totally different.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book!, April 16, 2009

By 

A. Baia "abdesigns" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secret Agent Jack Stalwart: Book 2: The Search for the Sunken Treasure: Australia (Paperback)

This review was written by my nine year old for a school project, but rest assured, even though he used this for school, he is completely hooked on these books, GREAT SERIES!

Here's his review/report (contains spoilers)

This book by Elizabeth Singer Hunt, called The Search for the Sunken Treasure is about a boy named Jack. He is a secret agent who has assigned himself his own mission... a search for his brother. For this mission he ends up in Australia, and not only will he be facing sharks and a Kinodo Dragon, he will be facing pirates!

Jack has to figh at group of deadly pirates to save a scuba diver that they captured. These pirates are a bunch of crooks that steal treasures and innocent people. They use a Kimodo Dragon to guard and hurt prisoners.

Jack has many problems on this mission. One problem was when he was trapped in a group of jellyfish. After he escaped he didn't knwo that he was surrounded by two Great White Sharks. He escapted the sharks by shooting a capsule of blood far away from him, the sharks followed the capsule.

Jack finally saves the prisoner who he found was bitten by the Kinodo Dragon by giving him a shot with the cure. He also captures the lead pirate a long with her crew and found out that they had stolen a sunken treasure.

I liked this book so much that I can't tell what my favorite part is, but I was very interested in the Kinodo Dragon. I like how the Jack Stalwart books always have a happy ending. I think that boys 8-9 woudl like this book, I think you should buy it today!

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun but flawed, July 15, 2010

By 

Norway Mom (Oslo area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret Agent Jack Stalwart: Book 2: The Search for the Sunken Treasure: Australia (Paperback)

I read this aloud to my boys (age 8 and 12). We had never read any other books from the series. I find that short, action-packed, illustrated books for young readers are fairly hard to find, so I do recommend the book, but I feel that it has some shortcomings.

The first couple chapters weren't that interesting, but the boys got very interested in the plot, especially toward the end.

The illustrations were nice and modern, but repetitive (the same one at the beginning of each chapter, and little variation in the illustrations at the end of each chapter).

The book ended a bit abruptly for my taste -- I expected a short scene at the end with Jack at home with his parents again.

For me as an adult, it was hard to "suspend my disbelief" and accept that a 9 year old would be called to assist in the mysterious disappearance of a diver. A kid spy undercover as an ordinary kid would have been much more credible (ala Cody Banks, etc.).

Call me picky, but I also had trouble with the inaccurate portrayal of the Komodo dragon. The book said something about the komodo dragon somehow paralyzing its prey with its bite, then coming back 5 minutes later to eat him. Wikipedia says nothing about this method of hunting, and it's highly disputed that the Komodo dragon is venomous or that the germs in its saliva would cause such a quick reaction. Besides, the Komodo dragon is normally a scavenger.