Snow Treasure Summary

Ladies and gentlemen,
I know we all haven't read the novel, Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan (you would have if you were my sixth graders), but I though it would be an interesting task to create an alternate ending of the book. Here is a synapses of the story...

TASK: Based on the summary of the story, would be interested in reading this novel? Why or why not? explain your reasoning using points of the summary as a guide.

Set in Norway at the beginning of World War II, it is the story of the people of the small town of Riswyk near the Arctic Circle who awaken on the morning of April 8, 1940, to find their country occupied by German troops. Their main concern is to keep Norwegian gold from falling into the hands of the German invaders. Peter Lundstrom, the main character, is a twelve-year-old boy whose father is the president of the bank.

Peter's uncle Victor is a daring sea captain who invents a plan to slip the gold past the Germans and onto his fishing boat for transport to America. The children of Riswyk are divided into "teams". Each team carries the gold on their sleds, a few bars at a time, to the bay where Uncle Victor's boat is hidden. There the children bury the gold in the snow. They build snowmen over the gold so that Victor and his mate, Rolls can find the gold and transfer it to their ship. One afternoon, Peter and his team are burying gold when the soldier appears. The children have seen this soldier before spying on them, so Uncle Victor and Rolls capture the soldier immediately. He claims to be Jan Lasek, a Polish conscript who hates the Germans. He was on his way to a University in America (there, he studies languages) when his passport was stolen (along with his identity) and he was taken captive as a prisoner of war. All he wanted was his freedom and to help his country. He could no longer help his family because they had died during the German takeover.Uncle Victor locks the soldier in the hold of his ship while he decides what to do next.

When the Germans discover that Lasek has disappeared, a house-to-house search begins. Peter returns to his teammates to hide more gold for Uncle Victor and build more snowmen, when the German soldiers approach the children and ask if they've seen this man who has gone missing (aka Jan Lasek). The Commandant became angry when Lovisa (Peter's sister) refused to answer him and began kicking the very snow man that hid gold beneath its base. In order to prevent the Germans from finding the gold, Peter makes a quick decision that could cost him his life. He threw a snowball at the Commandant. From there he was taken captive in the German barracks, when suddenly he is rescued by the Polish Boy (Jan Lasek). They sneak out of the barracks just in time and arrive once again on Uncle Victor's boat. So this was it, Peter was going to America. The novel ends as Peter hears Jan Lasek in the ship's galley practicing "The Star Spangled Banner" on a borrowed trumpet.