The Secret at the Foot of the Lighthouse
On the morning after the storm, River finds a bottle on the shore, its mouth sealed with wax. The forty-year-old letter inside speaks of something hidden in the island's closed-down lighthouse, but the lighthouse is going to be sold on Saturday! In just four days, can River discover who wrote the letter, what they hid and where, and what it really means to "take it back where it belongs"?
Free story — no account needed to read it.
15 Minutes
5 Endings
9-10
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About This Story
“The Secret at the Foot of the Lighthouse” is an interactive adventure story for children aged 9-10, about 15 minutes long. The reader decides how it goes at 6 choice points, and there are 5 different endings. It is free to read on Kitapz, with no account needed.
- Age range
- 9-10 years
- Reading time
- about 15 minutes
- Genre
- Adventure
- Format
- Interactive · 6 choice points · 5 endings
- Language
- English, Turkish
- Access
- Free, no account needed
- Characters
- Ethan, Uncle Ray, River, Ms. Selby, Granny Sylvia, Nell, The Islanders
- Values
- Curiosity, Perseverance, Teamwork
- Collections
- Adventure stories, Stories for ages 9-10
- Reading support
- dyslexia-friendly font, bionic reading, color-blindness filters
An Excerpt from the Story
The storm had rattled the windows all night long. In the morning, River, who had come from Ankara to spend the holidays at her granny's, wandered glumly along the beach in front of the house. She held her phone up in the air, then stretched it out toward the sea. Not a single bar showed on the screen.
River:
“You can't even get a signal on this island! Is this holiday ever going to end?”
Just then, she spotted a green glint among the seaweed. She bent down to look. It was an old bottle made of thick glass. Its mouth was sealed with red wax, and inside was a rolled-up piece of paper.
River (thinking):
Someone threw this into the sea on purpose!
She slipped her phone into her pocket, grabbed the bottle and ran all the way home.
“The Secret at the Foot of the Lighthouse” · Ages 9-10 · kitapz.com
school For Parents and Teachers
In this story, children follow a forty-year-old letter's trail with River: comparing drawings, studying old postcards and listening to the island's oldest residents. It shows a girl, bored on an island with no phone signal, drawn in by curiosity, and why a building's past can matter. Readers' choices decide who River teams up with and which clue she follows.
What will children learn from this story?
- Learns to read the words of a riddle closely and think about the different things they could mean.
- Practices gathering clues by placing a drawing or a piece of handwriting next to other examples and comparing them.
- Learns how old postcards and the memories of older people can help uncover the history of a place.
- Thinks about why a good story may not be enough to change someone's mind without evidence they can see for themselves.
Curriculum links: Language arts, Social studies
Fact Box
How long can a message in a bottle stay at sea?
The oldest known message in a bottle was found about 132 years after it was thrown. It was dropped into the Indian Ocean from the German sailing ship Paula on 12 June 1886, as part of a study of ocean currents. It turned up half-buried in sand near Wedge Island, Western Australia, in January 2018, and the Western Australian Museum confirmed it was genuine by matching it with the ship's records.
Source: Western Australian Museum
How do sailors tell one lighthouse from another?
At night, each lighthouse's flashes are arranged in a pattern of its own, called its light characteristic, so sailors can tell which light they are looking at. By day, many lighthouses are painted in a distinctive pattern, called a daymark, so they can be recognized easily.
Source: Wikipedia
Who runs the lighthouses in Turkey?
Turkey's lighthouses are run by a state body, the Directorate General of Coastal Safety (Kıyı Emniyeti Genel Müdürlüğü). According to its history page, lighthouse building along Turkey's coasts began in 1856 under a concession agreement between the Ottoman State and the French, and the state bought the service in 1938.
Can an old lighthouse be sold?
In some countries, yes. Under the U.S. National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, historic lighthouses no longer needed by the Coast Guard can be handed over free of charge to public agencies and nonprofit groups, or sold to the public at auction. The U.S. General Services Administration says 81 lighthouses have been transferred at no cost and 70 sold by auction this way.
Reading Comprehension Questions (5W1H)
The questions cover the opening that every reader sees, whatever they choose. Tap a question to see the answer.
-
Who? Who is River staying with on the island?
Answer: She has come from Ankara to spend the holidays with her granny, Granny Sylvia.
-
What? What is in the corner of the letter instead of a signature?
Answer: A tiny drawing of a seagull with a curled wingtip.
-
Where? Where do River and her granny see the big notice about the lighthouse sale?
Answer: On the board at the harbor café.
-
When? According to the notice, when will the sale be signed and when will the renovation begin?
Answer: The signing is on Saturday at noon, and the renovation begins on Monday.
-
Why? Why is Ethan excited about the lighthouse being sold?
Answer: He thinks that if a guesthouse opens, his dad's boat will be full of tourists.
-
How? How does Granny Sylvia open the bottle?
Answer: She scrapes the wax away bit by bit with a kitchen knife.
Questions to Talk About After Reading
- At the first choice, did you send River off with Ethan to check the dark corners, or with Granny Sylvia to find out what the lighthouse used to be like? Why did you pick that path?
- At the start, River is bored because her phone has no signal. Have you ever found something interesting in a place you expected to be boring?
- River, Ethan, Granny Sylvia and Uncle Ray each know something different. How can other people's knowledge help you when you are trying to solve a problem?
- Is there an old building in your neighborhood or town that you would not want to see torn down? Why?
Word List
- seaweed
- Plant-like living things that grow in the sea; storms often wash them up onto the beach.
- wax
- A material that goes soft when warm and hard when cool; in the story it seals the mouth of the bottle.
- guesthouse
- A small hotel, often in a house, where travelers can stay the night.
- renovation
- Work done to repair an old building or change how it looks inside.
- crowbar
- A short, strong iron bar with a flat end, used to force open stuck doors or lift heavy things.
- cape
- A piece of land that sticks out into the sea like a point.
Activity Idea
Hide a small object at home or in the classroom and write a one-sentence riddle, like the letter River finds, that hints at where it is without saying it outright; add a tiny drawing in the corner as your signature. Then swap riddles and use the clues to find each other's hidden objects.
Completion Rewards
What you'll earn when you finish this story: