SVS Agent Round 10: THE LAST DOUBLOON, MG Contemporary OwnVoices

Title: THE LAST DOUBLOON
Genre: MG Contemporary, "Ownvoices"
Word Count: 36,OOO

My MC is cool, impulsive but not explosive.

Query Letter

It’s summer break in Madrid and twelve-year-old Antonio Mora is flying to visit his abuelos in Florida. When his mom shows him an old silver coin discovered on the family property long ago, Antonio dreams of digging up a treasure that could help his unemployed dad and maybe bring his parents together again.

Antonio’s backpack is loaded with optimism, but treasure hunting without a map is tricky, and digging around with a snoopy-new-neighbor, a pain. But with Julianne, his encouraging friend by his side, Antonio is determined to find the coins and be a hero, and not even a tropical storm heading his way will stop him. When Julianne confides about her family struggling to pay their hospital bills, Antonio decides to share the treasure. If he ever finds it.

Just after he discovers his coin is a Spanish real from the famous wreck of the 1715 Treasure Fleet, he loses heart when he figures the coin is in too bad a shape to be as valuable as he’d hoped. Torn between the love for his dad and the loyalty for his friend, he’ll have to decide if he can split the coins as he finds them by the property line.

First 250

On the night before my trip to Florida, I peeked inside Mom’s closet hoping to find my dad’s missing photos. It hadn’t occurred to me then he might have taken the pictures with him the day he left. As I scanned her stuff, I saw a carved wooden box sitting on the middle shelf, right above my eyes. I stood on tiptoes and opened it quickly—my heart thumped so loud I missed the noisy clunk from the old elevator. But all I found inside the box was a leather pouch and a couple of baby teeth. Agh.

“Hola!” Mom called among the rustle of grocery bags.

I closed the box with a quick snap and scampered from her room like an empty-handed bandit. I made it safely to my room and went back to packing. She had left a couple of new shirts on my bed, but I shoved them back in the closet and chose my favorite hand-me-down Ronaldo shirts, my most precious possession, with little holes and all.

“How is it going?” Her voice startled me. “I bought you rosquillas.”

Poor Mom, always tripping on the Rs. How hard was it to roll an R? But I thanked her because I love rosquillas, as much as soccer, and that is mogollón, a LOT.

I glanced at her and then at my wallet, hoping she had gone to the bank. I pretended to look for money. Ha. When will I stick a hand in a pocket and find a bill?