Travels with Gannon and Wyatt: Hawaii by Patti Wheeler and Keith Hemstreet, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Twin brothers and explorers Gannon and Wyatt receive a letter from Alana Aukai, a native guide to the Hawaiian Islands, inviting them to visit and learn more about her home and culture. They agree to the trip, but get caught up in far more intrigue than they imagined, in Travels with Gannon and Wyatt: Hawaii, a middle-grade mystery adventure by Patti Wheeler and Keith Hemstreet.

Gannon and Wyatt are excited to be on the Big Island and in awe about how beautiful the place is. And how dramatic the change in the weather conditions are, from snow along the sides of the highest peaks to the warmth of the beaches below them. While hiking along a cliff on the north coast, they decide to take a break and enjoy the view. And that's when they see a man floundering in the surf. Gannon doesn't hesitate and jumps from the cliff to rescue him. Wyatt and Alana rush down to the beach to assist. The man is nearly non-responsive when they pull him ashore, but he hands a piece of paper to Gannon and speaks to him in Hawaiian. Neither Gannon nor Wyatt understand him, but Alana can pick out some of his words before he passes out: "Kamehameha … land … volcano … danger … map". Gannon pockets what they now believe is a map, only to come to find out later that others are looking for it. As it may hold the key to a long-unsolved mystery of the islands, the burial place of King Kamehameha.

Travels with Gannon and Wyatt: Hawaii is written in the form of a diary, with each brother contributing alternating chapters. It's an appropriate format for this book, one that middle-grade readers will quickly pick up on and appreciate. It's an exciting story overall, with all sorts of educational tidbits about the islands, its people, the environment, and more thrown in. It's hard not to learn something from this book, even incidentally. The two principal characters, Gannon and Wyatt, are drawn sufficiently differently that they're immediately distinguishable in terms of their writing and actions. About the only element that really doesn't work are the abundant grayscale photographs included. Some seem contextually relevant, others less so. But all are a bit muddied, as if printed at a too low resolution. The book would have been fine without them, and including them is more of a distraction than it should have been. Otherwise, this is a fine entry in this series and one that its intended audience will almost certainly enthusiastically embrace.

Acknowledgment: Raab Associates provided a copy of Travels with Gannon and Wyatt: Hawaii for this review.

Travels with Gannon and Wyatt: Hawaii

A Gannon and Wyatt Adventure by Patti Wheeler and Keith Hemstreet