Lily Quench and the Treasure of Mote Ely

Lily Quench #3

by Natalie Jane Prior

Kidnapped and taken back into the past to a crumbling castle in the middle of a creepy marsh, Lily Quench searches for the long-lost treasure of Mote Ely—and a way back to her own time.
 
Locked in a dungeon, attacked by a dragon, and befriended by her eccentric great-great-great-great-grandmother, Lily finds that enemies can sometimes be friends—and that old friends can unexpectedly turn into enemies.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Dragons, Adventure

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Prior was born in 1963 in Brisbane, Australia, where she also currently lives with her husband and daughter. Her first fiction book, 'The Amazing Adventures of Amabel', was published in 1990 and her internationally successful children's fantasy series, 'Lily Quench', has been published in more than twenty countries. Prior's work has been a finalist at the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards as well as being honoured and named as notable. Her work, 'Fireworks and Darkness', won the 2003 Davitt Awards for best young-adult novel and her work, 'Lily Quench and the Lighthouse of Skellig Mor' won the 2003 Aurealis Award for best children's short fiction. She has also been nominated for an Aurealis Award on three other occasions for best short fiction, long fiction and young-adult novel.

Reviews

[Lady Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5 / 5

If time travel gets too confusing, I don't like it, but in a children's novel, that's not usually the case, so I've always quite enjoyed the idea of Eye Stones in the Lily Quench series.

Starting off simply with Lily planning a nice visit on her island, she is suddenly kidnapped in the middle of the night through an Eye Stone, a magical device that can take people anywhere and anytime. In this case, Lily is taken three hundred years back in the past to Mote Ely, a castle in the middle of a creepy swamp.

Enter a fun cast of new characters and a creepy new villain as well, and we've got another great Lily Quench adventure! Apart from the Magicians' Pyramid (5th book), I'm pretty sure that this was my favourite book of the series as a kid. Looking forward to re-reading the rest of Lily's adventures, but also appreciating this one a lot.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I continue to be impressed at the way that the Lily Quench series handles tricky narrative elements in such appropriate ways for kids...in The Treasure of Mote Ely, that was the concept of time travel! There are so many complexities to how the future might be changed by going back into the past, but Lily Quench doesn't shy away from making mention of those and finding solutions that make sense for the story. it just did such a nice job setting up that type of experience for kids and laying the groundwork for them to continue thinking more deeply about it in the future. In addition to that, there were some nice underlying themes about leadership and respect and friendship. Plus there was treasure and battle and kidnapping and escape to keep the interest level high, so all in all, yet another enjoyable read aloud!

[Kron · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fun. Well written. Excellent read.

I quite enjoyed this world (whoops, I started at #3 - but didn't get lost at all). I think I wish a little more character from Lily. This particular book seemed more about other characters than her but maybe book 1&2 have more character development.

The writing is what I want in a children's book. Complex enough to push the reading level while still accessible.

I would love to read some of the others in this series.

[Darkmond · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for the character of Gordon, which I came to love in the previous book "Lily Quench and the Black Mountains".
So I must say that I didn't get much of what I wanted, cause there is very little of him in this book. I hope to have more in the last book in the series "Lily Quench and the Search for King Dragon".

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

i was quit disapointed in this one with the other ones they were good i thought that this would be great but my expectation changed after we got in the middle and thing just went to rubish and they didn't know where to go after woulds

[Euphemia]

Cool Story, it didn't mess up the time travel so much, though i didn't understand why Matilda's ghost had to be sighted around. Still, an interesting story. Gordon's improved slightly, but there always will be an... annoying character (Rabbit).

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seems to me Lily becomes more of a passive observer than an active hero in this book. I'm hoping book four in the series will redeem her. No more standing around waiting to drown or have someone rescue her - she should have at least been looking for a way out of her predicament!

[♥Mz.LiBrA♥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is adventures to me

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great continuation of the story.

[Tilly Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fantastic continuation of the Lily Quench series.