We the Children - Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School

We the Children
Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School
By Andrew Clements
Recommended for grades 4 to 6

Eleven year-old Benjamin Pratt is a sixth grade student at Oakes School in Edgeport, Massachusetts, on Barclay Bay. The school building is only fifty feet from the water’s edge.

When the story began, Benjamin was running through the hall at school, trying to make it to homeroom before he was tardy again. Ms. Wilton is the art teacher and his homeroom teacher. In art class, she is full of fun. But as a homeroom teacher, she is a drill sergeant.

Since the art room was in the original part of the building, he had to run through the annex from the newer part of the school. Halfway there, he found the elderly janitor, Mr. Keane, in a lot of pain. Apparently Mr. Keane had injured his ankle on the stairs, but had already called 9-1-1. Ben stayed with him until the ambulance arrived.

While waiting, Mr. Keane said he recognized Ben. He had helped Ben and his dad scrape the hull of their sailboat two summers ago.

Then Mr. Keane did something unusual. He handed Ben a large gold coin. Mr. Keane explained that it had been handed down from janitor to janitor since the school was built in 1783 by Captain Duncan Oakes.

The coin had this inscription: “If attacked, look nor’-nor’east from amidships on the upper deck.” On the other side of the coin was this statement: “First and always, my school belongs to the children. DEFEND IT. Duncan Oakes, 1783.”

The janitor went on to tell Ben that the town council had sold the school, plus the twenty acres surrounding it, to a developer. It would be torn down in June, and a theme park would be built in its place.

He also warned Ben that the new janitor, Lymon, was not to be trusted. Neither were the principal or the superintendent.

By then the paramedics had arrived, working over Mr. Keane and then taking him to the hospital. Ben went on to homeroom, feeling stunned, unsettled, and somewhat afraid.

At lunchtime, Ben sat with his friend Jill Acton instead of the boys he usually sat with. She was very intelligent and he asked her what she knew about Duncan Oakes, the founder of the school.

While they were talking and eating lunch, the principal came over the intercom to announce the news – Mr. Keane had died!

Ben and Jill embark on an adventure to save the school. The mission turns dangerous when they start discovering things that powerful people don’t want them to see.

Warning: This book is only the first in the “Keepers of the School” series. The last chapter keeps you hanging and looking forward to the next book, “Fear Itself,” which is coming soon!

We the Children - Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School