Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Just after twelve-year-old Emily and her family move to San Francisco, she teams up with new friend James to follow clues in an odd book they find, hoping to figure out its secrets before the men who attacked Emily's hero, publisher Garrison Griswold, solve the mystery or come after the friends.

Book Scavenger

Sarah Sammis

Lynn Braden

Book Scavenger is a great middle school book. The story is about Emily and her eccentric family that moves repeatedly around the country in order to live in 50 homes in 50 different states. On their move to San Francisco, Emily meets James and finds a friend with the same interests in books and games as she has. Emily and James become involved in a game created by Garrison Griswold, the creator of a variety of games for book lovers around the country. This game, however, becomes deadly when Griswold is mugged and sent to the hospital on the way to revealing his new game. Emily and James stumble onto the game and find themselves trying to solve the puzzle at the same time they are being pursed by unknown assailants who want a book by Edgar Allen Poe called The Gold Bug. There are lots of twists and turns in this story and Emily learns a great deal about herself and her family. This is a wonderful book for middle grade readers as well as anybody who likes a good mystery, puzzle, or treasure hunt.

Book Scavenger

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