Book Review: Book Scavenger

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman is my favorite type of story – focused around books and a treasure hunt!  Emily moves to San Francisco with her family and meets James, a next door neighbor who loves puzzles as much as she does.  She’s excited to be in the hometown of well-known publisher Garrison Griswold, creator of the game Book Scavenger (think geo-caching with books!).  When Emily and James find a book that isn’t part of Book Scavenger, but still might be the beginning of a new Griswold puzzle, they begin to follow the clues to the prize.  Meanwhile, Griswold is hospitalized after an attack in the subway and remains in a coma leaving the kids on their own to figure what Griswold was planning, before the attackers catch up with them.
The story is filled with puzzles, ciphers and a whole lot of literary clues surround Edgar Allen Poe’s work.  It’s a fairly fast-paced adventure story, still giving time for Emily to interact with her family and teacher as well as other kids from school sometimes getting along, other times upset and confused as any 12-year-old is apt to do.  Emily is a very real tween character, frustrated by her parents and older brother, sometimes wholly focused on herself rather than her friends, but in the end understands the importance of friendship even when you’re not sure what happens next.
This is a great story, especially if you liked The Westing Game or Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and if you read the author’s note at the end of the story you’ll learn her inspiration for creating Book Scavenger.  This was a fun and entertaining read!
Title: Book Scavenger
Author: Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Publisher: Henry Hold and Company
Publication Date: 2015
Page Number: 354 pgs.