A Treasure's Trove

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Today we continued the celebration of Connor's eleventh birthday. The celebrating began last Saturday with an impromptu visit by his friend, Alex, who was in from San Antonio. Marilyn and I took Con and Alex to see Are We There Yet? - a movie that hit the mark for it's demographic (13 and under), but offered nothing for the grown ups who were locked in with their children for an hour and a half. After the movie Con and Alex got to go for ice cream at Stucchi's. It was a short visit for Alex, but a really nice surprise for Connor. His birthday festivities continued on his birthday proper (yesterday) when he not only got an officially sanctioned day off from school (an in-service day), he got to go to Moody Garden's and have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe with his "Bigs," Jim, Honey, and Gil.

This morning Mom and I took Con to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and saw the new exhibit - Gold. The Gold exhibit was interesting, but the best part of our trip to the museum was seeing Michael Stadther talk about his book, A Treasure's Trove, the children’s story he wrote incorporating clues for a national treasure hunt he is sponsoring. On display today we saw the incredibly beautiful jewelry that makes up the treasure. Stadther wrote and illustrated the book released last November; his illustrations are filled with lush colors and magical imagery, and the story is a splendid fable with Fairies, Darklings, a talking tree, a human, a halfling, an evil apothecary, and a dog named Pook. Within the paintings and the story are the clues that lead to the special tokens Stadther has hidden around the U.S.; the tokens can be redeemed for stunning jewels fashioned to resemble the creatures in his fairy-tale. The appraised value of the jewels is over a million dollars, so the book and treasure hunt are gaining an almost cult-like following.

If you have the opportunity to attend one of his book signings, I would recommend you go just to see Stadther talk about his book. He is careful not to give away hints about the treasure hunt, but he is an entertaining speaker and he seems to enjoy interacting with his audience and answering their questions. I was pleasantly surprised to hear him say that he plans to give profits from the book to ecological charities after he recoups his investment. A Treasure’s Trove is wonderful (even without the treasure hunt), and I suspect some shrewd producer will talk Stadther into turning his fable into a children's Saturday morning cartoon or a movie, with a line of toys and other merchandise (a la Harry Potter). The treasure hunt ends December 31^st 2007; so enjoy this phenomenon while it lasts.