Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting

Dionne, Erin. Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting
July 10th 2014 by Dial

In this sequel to Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking, we find Ollie whisked off to a scout camp to lie low in the aftermath of finding the stolen art with Moxie. Ollie is a little apprehensive to join an existing troop of boys he doesn't know, but likes the idea of geocaching and participating in a game of attrition where boys are tagged "out". There is the added thrill of mysteries on the small islands outside of Boston, and these become even more intense when the park ranger's daughter, Grey, shows up. What is the ranger really doing? And how much trouble will Ollie and his new friends get in while they break camp rules to investigate?
Strengths: Lots of adventure in the woods, complete with highjinks that are against the rules. A touch of historical information. I've been reading a lot about Graff's Absolutely Almost and how it is new and innovative that Albie is a "regular" kid-- Ollie certainly was regular in this book.
Weaknesses: I loved Moxie, and missed her character tremendously. This book didn't have the same element of danger, the mysteries seemed scattered, and something just didn't click for me.

This does, however, get HUGE points for #WeNeedDiverseBooks Wednesday-- Ollie is half Vietnamese (and has bad asthma), the scoutmaster is Fuentes, the parent volunteer is Gupta, and this boys include a Spezzano, Vargas, Pryzyblowicz, Ramirez and an Imprezzi. Troop leader Washington has dreadlocks. The ethnic makeup of Boston must be much different than the ethnic makeup of central Ohio-- we have a growing Somali, Hispanic and Ghanan population, but still have a vast majority of students with names like Williams, Taylor and Brown!