Treasure Fever!
| Author | Andy Griffiths |
|---|---|
| Country |
 Australia |
| Language | English |
| Series | Schooling Around! |
| Genre | Children's |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
Publication date | 1 April 2008 |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 216 |
| ISBN | 978-0-330-42389-2 |
| Followed by | Pencil of Doom! |
Treasure Fever! ( La Fievre du Tresor) is the first book of the Schooling Around series by Andy Griffiths. It was published in April 2008 by Pan Macmillan Australia.
Plot
Mr. Brainfright (the substitute teacher) tells the class that a man has a goat, a wolf and some cabbage, and he needs to cross a river. There's a boat there, but it can only hold two things. If the man takes the wolf, the goat will eat the cabbage, and if the man takes the cabbage, the wolf will eat the goat. The class starts arguing about why he needs the things anyway, and why he needs to cross the river. To get them to try to work it out, he offers a lollipop to whoever gets it right, much to Henry's desire. While trying to work it out, Clive shoots spit balls at him.
Although it's annoying, Henry uses the chewed up bits of paper to help him solve the problem, winning him the lollipop. At recess Clive and Fred, Clive's brother, claim that the lollipop is his, because he used Clive's spitballs to help him work it out. Fred and Henry then have a fight, until Mrs Cross stops it. Even though Fred started it, Mrs Cross blames it on Henry, as she and all the other teachers see him as a model student.
As a result he gets sent to the principal's office. Expecting the worst, Greenbeard actually understands what he's talking about and tells him of a treasure full of things that he had, buried in a hill that he named "Skull Island", which had been stolen by another pirate! The object left in the chest was a note:
Search the Northwest Southeast seas
Search upon bended and bloodied knees
But of your riches you will only dream -
Greenbeard's pirates are no match for me.
McThrottle would go through all lengths just to find. He finds out that the line "Dig for a thousand nights and a night" was a reference to a book named The Thousand and One Nights. He reads it, and discovers that the line "But of your riches you will only dream" is a reference to one of the stories in the book. The ending of the story leaves him to conclude that the chest should be right where they started: Skull Island. He asks another boy at class, Grant Gadget, to borrow his metal-detecting machine. The next day, Henry, his friends and Grant watch as the metal detector (or what he calls the "super charged treasure detector") blow up and reveal a key.
Unfortunately, gossip has passed around the school, Fred and Clive pop up again, and outsmart one of Henry's friends, Jack Japes, into revealing that a treasure does indeed exist.
Henry double-crosses Fred by providing him with a realistic-looking fake map and get back to work. Unfortunately, they are caught by Mrs Cross, who just happens to be passing.
Mr Brainfright to conduct an archaeological dig to find the treasure. They do indeed find the top of the treasure box with the help of Mr Brainfright's jackhammer. This annoys Mrs Cross and she leaves to the principal's office to request that Mr Brainfright be fired.
Gretel manages to dig out thechest, but Fred snatches it, and opens it up with the key. All that is found is a marble, a rock, a pencil, a yo-yo, a shark's tooth, a rabbit's foot, a black-eye patch, a plastic ring, a water pistol, and a football card.
Fred gets angry with Henry when he saw what was inside, and attempts to attack him. Instead, he trips over Newton's foot and falls into the hole where the treasure was found, giving time to grab it and race to Greenbeard's office.
Greenbeard gets so happy that his book was found, and saw that the bottom of the box had the initials - Mrs Cross' name before she was married!
Henry and his friends take one item each from the box, but it's not over yet - the pencil that Henry picks up turns out to be the Pencil of Doom!
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