Shadows at Jamestown
Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, and 400-year-old secrets buried beneath America’s first English settlement.
Four hundred years ago, colonists crossed the Atlantic to discover a new world. Today, an amazing archaeological dig at Historic Jamestowne promises to uncover new secrets from those earliest English settlers — and Sam, Derek, and Caitlin are right in the middle of it.
Inside Shadows at Jamestown.
Sam, Derek, and Caitlin are the youngest field assistants ever invited to the summer dig at Historic Jamestowne — a real working archaeological program where most of the team are graduate students from UVA, Penn, and beyond. On their first afternoon in the dirt, Sam uncovers a sixteenth-century Persian ceramic vase with intricate blue sparkle patterns. It’s the find of the week.
Then someone switches it for a replica.
When the Smithsonian threatens to pull Jamestown’s funding and a thunderstorm leaves the dig site flooded under mysteriously untied tarps, the trio realizes that not everyone on the team is here to dig up the truth.
Shadows at Jamestown is the Virginia Mysteries’ most decorated book — a Virginia Readers’ Choice title and one of the most-adopted in the series for elementary classrooms. Pairs perfectly with Virginia Studies Colonial-era units.
Inside these pages
Stand where America began.
Historic Jamestowne — the actual original 1607 settlement — is open to visitors and home to one of the most active archaeological digs in America. You can watch real archaeologists at work, see the artifacts they’ve unearthed, and walk the same ground Captain John Smith did.
It pairs naturally with Jamestown Settlement (the living-history museum across the road) for a fuller day, but Historic Jamestowne itself is the heart of the book.
Historic Jamestowne
The real history behind the book
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 — thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. It’s where the American story really starts.
The actual original settlement site, with an active archaeological dig still uncovering new artifacts. Walk the fort, see the church, meet the archaeologists. National Park Service site.
When the English landed in 1607, they were entering the territory of the Powhatan Confederacy — an alliance of about thirty Algonquian-speaking tribes covering most of coastal Virginia, led by a chief the English called Powhatan. His daughter Pocahontas was about eleven years old. Their story is far more complicated than the cartoon version most kids know — and the Powhatan people are still here today.
Free downloadable comprehension quiz, Virginia Readers’ Choice discussion guide, and Virginia Studies Colonial-era materials specifically for Shadows at Jamestown.
What readers are saying
“If the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew appeared in the same book, you would have the Virginia Mysteries series… Shadows at Jamestown does not disappoint.”
— Reader review
“We read Shadows at Jamestown to prepare for a field trip… Smith provided realistic descriptions of both sites that made everything come alive. Highly recommend!”
— Parent
“I read this book to see if I wanted to do it as a read aloud in my 5th grade class for our Jamestown unit. I absolutely do!”
— Fifth-grade teacher
“My parents had to force me to put it down!… This is my favorite out of all of them.”
— Young reader
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Using Shadows at Jamestown in your classroom?
Free comprehension quiz, discussion guide, and One Book, One School program materials available. Plus bulk pricing for classroom sets and signed copies.
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Available in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook everywhere books are sold — or order a signed copy direct from Steven.