Curse of the Ruins

Reading Kam SawyerBook Review Sept. 30, 2002 Curse of the Ruins Imagine a fast-paced adventure story about three kids who try to find their dad who is lost on a New Mexico ruin. They have to escape danger from bad guys who want to find a secret map, which their dad left them. Their lives are in danger. They make friends with some local kids and get some help from an Indian who seems to often appear out of nowhere. Can they find their dad, or will the bad guys catch them first? Gary Paulsen's Curse of the Ruins is set in modern day New Mexico. It begins with a brother, Sam, his thirteen-year-old twin sister, Katie and their cousin Shala arriving at the airport in San Marcos. Sam and Katie's father is an anthropologist, who has been studying the ancient, cliff dwellers, Indians who built their villages high up on cliff walls. The three kids begin to get suspicious, when he isn't there to meet them and here the adventure begins. First a thief grabs Katie's bag and disappears. When she yells for help, she finds out that the police are not on her side. Instead the kids find a neighborhood boy, Pepe, who knows all the local hideaways and can answer any of their questions "for a small fee". He finds out that the thieves are still looking for something from the Katie and he warns the kids, "they won't stop until they find it". When the kids figure out that they have always been carrying a secret map, they use it to try to find their dad. They went to the ruins of the ancient cliff dwellers, where they narrowly escaped the thieves who had tied up their dad. Everybody was relieved to find their dad safe and sound. They gathered together at the police station for food, drinks and chats. I liked the adventure of this story and recommend it to other middle school kids. It will hold their interest because the main characters are in their age group and they are in many exciting adventures. This dialogue from Curse of the Ruins gives the feel of the risks they face:"These are very bad men, senor. It is possible they work for the Cartel, a powerful drug mafia located in Central America. The talk is they are searching for something valuable which they believe you have." The look on Pepe's face turned grim. "And I am worried they will stop at nothing to get their hands on it." Parts in the book are fun because of how far fetched they were.