Treasure at Long Point: The Key to Time, Book Two, by Lynne Grist. Illustrated by Teresa Westervelt, cover art by Tom Harrison (2024).

Last year, in a review of Book One in Lynne Grist’s historical fiction series, we reported on the enthusiasm of our twin 8-year-olds for this engaging, time-travelling search for lost treasure at a favourite location, Sandbanks.

When news of a sequel came, these would-be readers brought it up frequently. Treasure at Long Point has been a hit. Especially since this time around, the now ten-year-olds are reading it on their own.

The story continues directly from where the previous book left off. “It has the same vibe,” says Noel.

Told from the point of view of Bella Wilkins, an eleven-year-old girl vacationing at a run-down cottage in the County, the story includes Bella’s preoccupied mother and her enthusiastic six-year-old brother, Joey.

The family has moved to a new cottage, though, this time at Long Point. Here, the lighthouse and historic fishing village are the focus of a treasure hunt. Bella and Joey discover an ancient message in a bottle on the shore — an obscure, handwritten note is included in a pocket at the back of the book. It tells of a shipwreck and buried treasure. 

A magical key, lost at the end of Book One, is recovered in Book Two, and this time, Bella and Joey know exactly what to do with it. Noel felt this was an improvement over the previous book, because “they know how to use it right away.”

Bella and Joey travel back and forth through different moments in the past. Maritime history is recorded in the details of storms and shipwrecks, and legends of lake monsters. Present-day records, such as houses and gravestones, and books, variously confirm or inspire their discoveries. Many moments in County history feature, all tied to sailing on the lake.

As in the previous book, while brother and sister are engaged in their adventures, they are developing emotionally, both in their relationship, and in accepting their father’s death. The arrival of their Dad’s brother, Uncle Sam, helps with this. His resemblance to their father provides a link to the past very much like that of a magical key.

Noel felt a small struggle about his favourite character. “I think Bella is my favourite. She’s the main character. She’s more responsible because Joey’s six, and a bit annoying.”

Most popular with Noel was the well-known Minerva McCrimmon, characterized as a confident and outspoken young woman. Unlike the fictional fisherman, Jack, whom the children visit at different stages in his long life, Minerva appears only once, in the year before her tragic death in 1880.

The book does a great job in generating interest in a young reader. Many County parents may know about Minerva through the work of the late Suzanne Pasternak, but children may not. The narrative builds up to her introduction with her gravestone, the mother’s commentary, and even some poetry in one of Bella’s books.

“They actually found Minerva’s clothes—the person in the poem! It said she had a black cape, you know, and stuff, and they found her clothes and they tried them on,” said Noel, impressed.

Could there be lake monsters in or around the County’s waters? Do the children ever find the buried treasure?

As Noel put it, “Bro, I have so many details. But I can’t tell you — it’s a spoiler.”

Treasure at Long Point is available at Books and Company.