“I intend to send you boys anywhere in the world you want to go.”

“Anywhere?“ Sure, sure, anywhere.” Benton paused. He could not believe what he was hearing. “Well, Mr. Jacobs, the perfect destination that would provide the Junior Discoverers with everything they need for learning and adventure—is a guided voyage off the coast of South America. We would sail up and down the coastline for five days learning seafaring skills, studying marine life. The description of that excursion sounds just like the Junior Discoverers’ creed, doesn’t it, Mr. Jacobs?”

Benton Johnson is a member of the Junior Discoverers, the scientifically inclined version of the Boy Scouts. He suggests South America in memory of his mother, who had been on a scientific marine expedition a year earlier and had been lost at sea. Mr. Jacobs, a benevolent former Junior Discoverer, awards the boys with a discovery trip of a lifetime. Unfortunately, the troop has been taken over by the laziest, meanest man in town, Mr. Byle, and his good-for-nothing, trouble-making son, Tobias. Mr. Byle exchanges the boat, captain, and crew for a far less seaworthy setup and pockets the rest of the money. Benton ends up falling overboard and experiences more discovery than he could have ever anticipated!

First he is saved from sharks by a pod of dolphins, who then bring him safely to a tropical island. Benton is tired and hungry, and a bit frightened as well. There are many exotic—and dangerous—creatures on this island.

When Benton sees some fruit high up on some vines, he climbs up to collect it but falls through a hole in the vines—into a giant spider web! The tarantula is as big as a basketball, and judging by the mound of skeletal remains of other animals beneath the web, has no qualms making Benton its next meal. In a heart-pounding action scene, Benton manages to slay the giant spider and ends up roasting it for lunch.

He realizes that the mound of vines he had tried to climb is actually an ancient, vine-covered temple. He enters a magnificent room with a gorgeous quartz altar. There are many etchings on the stone walls of people and animals. Benton finds a secret passageway behind the altar and follows it to a special room with a beautiful black stone basin inside. When he unstops the tube in the center of the basin, refreshingly clear water starts gurgling and filling the bowl. He drinks of it, then experiences tremendous pain in his throat and head like he has never experienced before. The pain passes, and he returns to the jungle in search of more food.

He hears someone calling for help and rushes to their aid. It turns out it’s a bird; and he can understand its cries! Benton can also understand the snake that is attacking it. “Leave,” the bushmaster puffed. “This one is mine.” Benton can now communicate with animals.

Benton encounters other creatures, both friend and foe, and is recruited to help rescue Tu’i Malila, a tortoise with the power of the ages inside her who has been kidnapped and is about to be consumed by Black Bellamy, a demon ghost pirate . . . who may also be responsible for Benton’s mother’s disappearance. If Black Bellamy drains Tu’i’s life force he will become invincible, and will destroy the entire world. It is up to Benton and his small band of unlikely heroes—a porcupine named Tennyson and an iguana named Hermando—to save the world.