The Discovery (Dive, Book 1)

I'm hooked on this series of three books by Gordon Korman. In the first book, four students not known for their diving are chosen for a prestigious oceanographic internship. Interspersed with their story is the story of a 13-year-old sailor who drowned in the 1600s, whose treasure the interns find. This book asks a lot more questions than it answers, making me want to check out the next book instead of do my homework!

I love these adventure series by Korman, even though I don't have much interest in scuba myself (I'm claustrophobic and deep water is terrifying). I do love the ocean though, mostly from afar obviously, and enjoyed reading about the kids underwater exploring.

I chose this book for a read-aloud with my son because it is set in the Caribbean and involves SCUBA diving. I thought it would be perfect for us, as we heading out on a Caribbean dive trip.

But the book was not very engaging, with very lifeless characters. Worse, we felt cheated when we got to the end and figured out that this is only the first part of a trilogy and can not stand on it's own. It is only a set up for the next two books. We are not going to bother with the next two books.

Four teens have been chosen for a summer of diving and none of them really know WHY they were chosen. One was a hockey player who caused the injury of another player and is running from hockey. One is a rich kid who just needs to be out of the way while her parents have fun for the summer. One is a colorblind photographer and the fourth is the only one who really knows how to scuba dive, but she is handicapped. The mystery is to discover why they were chosen when the team they are to work with avoids them as much as possible.
The students may have a harder time with this book as the first chapter takes them back and tells the story of a teen on ship sinking in 1665. Thrown in throughout the book are more chapters about the 1665 ship, show more but it does more background BEFORE the date the boat sank.
Honestly, the first book didn’t get into much more than introducing the kids and having them find a sunken WWII plane which the adults assure them is just from a movie. When they next find a coin from a ship, they are again assured it is just from a movie though one of the adults confiscates it because he says he’s a major fan of the movie star. This is when the mystery starts to unfold AND THE BOOK ENDS! show less

Mystery

When four kids find sunken treasure in the Carribean, the plot to get the treasure is on.

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