Munching on Pirate’s Booty and chocolate coins, students and teachers gathered after school in the Woodland Media Center to explore and examine the adventures of Jim Hawkins and his pirate posse.
This year, the novel, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. was selected by One Region, One Book as a story that could be accessible for all age groups. The 1R1B committee, Region 16 teachers Meghan Geary, Gail Pells and Paul Geary, selected different versions of the story to accommodate all reading levels. This included a graphic novel that was one of the two versions offered to sixth graders at Long River Middle School.
Today, 1R1B was meeting with Woodland readers to get their take on the famous pirate story.
At the beginning of the meeting, Meghan Geary, Treasure Island enthusiast, asked the students what they thought of the book. While the group agreed that the pirate dialect used in the storytelling was confusing at times, they ended up liking the story. They admitted to skipping over words and phrases that were uncommon at first, but then they began to comprehend the terminology as they progressed in the story.
Sophomore Sean O’Connell noted that the pace picked up as he continued reading.
“It was slow at first,” said O’Connell, “but I ended up enjoying it”.
Paul Geary, avid reader, chimed in how he was affected by the concept of the 134-year-old tale, but did not quite “treasure it”.
“I liked the idea of the story,” said Geary, “more than the story itself.”
Meghan Geary herself admitted to never reading the book before as a child but has a newfound appreciation for it as an adult.
Not only did the group discuss how they felt about the story overall, they also grappled with several themes that appear in the book. One of the themes being how anything can happen at any time, disillusionment; the idea of how things may seem so perfect, but the reality is more complex than that. Other themes discussed were who can be trusted in certain situations, such as Jim Hawkins, the main character, not knowing who is good in the crew or who is under the lead of Long John Silver, the antagonist.
Symbolism used in Treasure Island was also discussed by the group. Of particular note were the symbols that Robert Louis Stevenson created, but are still used today. One of them being the skull and crossbones, an image that not only conjures thoughts of pirate ships coming up over the sea’s horizon, but also of death and warnings of poisonous substances. Stevenson also employed the “X”-marks-the-spot strategy that pirates allegedly used and is still used today in popular culture in games like Pokémon Go, and in activities like geocaching.
The group noted that pirates have always been an interest amongst audiences, and pirate marketing has been popular for years. Pirates have been greatly publicized in media in countless books and movies. The assembled readers even compared Treasure Island’s pirates to those in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies but said that the Somali Pirates were much more villainous.
“They just wanted to kill then get the treasure and go,” O’Connell said.
Also of note was the treasure hunting that was explained in Treasure Island and how similar it was to the movie starring Nicolas Cage, National Treasure. Cage’s character has to follow clues and maps to find the collected treasure at the end of the journey, much like Jim Hawkins and the crew.
The meeting wrapped up by reviewing Jim Hawkins and his character development. Meghan Geary brought to light how much he matured throughout his journey, and all members agreed. The students in the Treasure Island Book Club gave examples of how he tricked other pirates, “pirated” a ship, and saved many lives. This led the group to conclude he had a great story to tell.
Even though some readers might have missed the Treasure Island Book Club, there are other ways to be engaged with the literature this year. For instance, Woodland’s drama club will be presenting the play Treasure Island December 8th and 9th. Woodland will also be hosting a treasure hunt that students can sign up for starting Tuesday, October 10th. The treasure hunt will last throughout the whole month of October and prizes will be rewarded at the end. Those who have not read Treasure Island may still participate.
With all 2,206 Region 16 students reading the same book, perhaps the famous swashbuckling pirate motto sums up what OneRegionOneBook is trying to accomplish when they selected Treasure Island as the region-wide read– “All for one, and one for all.”
