Yo Ho Ho

Looking for a middle-grade story starter? From historian Larry Cebula’s Northwest History blog:

On a personal note, my 9-year-old son, a bright boy and a fan of Captain Jack Sparrow, became fascinated with these 300 year old directions to pirate treasure [from the Rhode Island Historical Society].

As I write this he is pouring over an atlas map of the Caribbean trying to match up the cryptic “J L” and “B O” to some modern feature. I am impressed by the way he is thinking historically—“Dad! Do we have a map of the Caribbean that was made in 1719? Because the names might be different now!” “Dad! Is there a biography of the guy who wrote the directions? Because then we could see where he went and narrow it down.” The poor kid is ruined.

Historical research is so much like detective work that I think it’s a natural basis for a middle-grade mystery.