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Salty and the Pirates - adventure, mystery, travel, history, and science.

16 Chapters - sail into a multicultural family boating adventure, with pirates, treasure, travel, astronomy, and a mermaid. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Quick chapter book summary - Ten year old Salty discovers ancient legend from deep in the jungles of Mexico with the help of his friend, Katie, and his mysterious mermaid guide. He, his dad, and the pirates travel through stormy boating adventure and follow a path that leads them all to danger, an astronomy legend, and powerful treasures.

Glossaries - learn pirate, marine, and Spanish words. PG1 MARINE GLOSSARY

Detailed Chapter Book Summary - When Salty Walker is seven years old, he joins his father and his friends on a boat delivery from Mexico to San Francisco. They call themselves pirates, because it reflects their lifestyle of marine adventure. During a storm at sea, when the ship is threatened, a spirit guide in the form of a mermaid appears to Salty and helps lead the sailboat and her pirate crew to safety. Salty learns that his family is not surprised by this because his mother, Reya, who is from Mexico, has had similar experiences when she has been in danger. He learns that the Espíritu (Spanish word for spirit or spirit guide) that came to him in the form of a mermaid may have a link to his maternal family ancestry—he is descended through his mother from the ancient Zapotec people of Mexico.

The story then leaps back two thousand years, to the Zapotec civilization at Monte Albán in Oaxaca, Mexico, where a ritual treasure with a link to astronomy is stolen and never recovered. This theft had long-reaching effects and sets the stage for Salty’s present adventure.

When Salty is ten years old, his family is preparing to go boating, leaving their beach house on the northwest Washington coast for an extended boating voyage aboard their sailboat. They receive word from their friends, the pirates, they are coming to visit and are bringing an artifact they believe may solve the mystery of the missing treasure from Mexico—a part of which they had found eleven years before on a treasure hunting expedition in the jungles of Oaxaca.

Salty’s parents had indeed found part of a treasure then—a carved and jeweled wooden chest that they turned over to a museum. Salty and his friend, Katie, had always believed the story a ‘fish tale,’ but when the kids learn the story is true, they try to learn everything they can about the discovery eleven years before, and also about the legend of the missing Zapotec treasure and the strange powers it was said to hold.

In the midst of this, the mermaid appears again to Salty. She had not come again after the first time on the boating adventure up from Mexico and Salty had begun to believe she had just been a dream. Katie can’t see the mermaid but it’s clear to her that Salty can. Though she is frightened by the thought of a ‘ghost,’ she helps him try to solve the mystery foremost in his mind: What danger threatens him?

As they seek the answer, using observation, conversation, photo histories, and the Internet, they track a suspicious stranger. The children's friend, Captain Jeb, an old fisherman and friend of the pirates, helps them sort out the facts.

When Salty learns the truth, he must decide whether to take action or to tell his parents. He was taught to follow his instincts and, knowing the mermaid is with him, he takes the responsibility to act alone. It’s not an easy road, but it leads to the capture of a wanted criminal, the solution of a theft and murder, and to the climatic release of the secret held within the ancient treasures from Mexico.

With their troubles behind them, the Walker family sails off to their next boating travel adventure: A rendezvous with the pirates, the reunion of the kids, and the return of the ancient treasures to their proper home in Mexico.

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Order Salty and the Pirates - a children's multimedia family boating and travel activity kit for kids of all ages: includes a multicultural adventure book, marine fantasy picture book, art and music projects, interactive music CD, CD-ROM computer graphics training, and more...the perfect gift!

Midnight Caravan Publishing

Marie Delaney: marie.delaney@saltysworld.com

General Information: info@saltysworld.com

Ph: 360-380-3800, Fx: 360-380-1853

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