Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
My rating: 4/5 cats
i don’t really read enough middle grade to know how this book stacks up against others written for that age range; i’m a middle grade tourist who only pops in when i come across a book that’s either so magnificently written that it carves out a little bed in my heart (Rooftoppers) or when it’s about baby booknerds or baby chefs or cats having adventures or something else that would have caught my eye when i was in that 8-12 age range, so long ago.
this falls into that second category. it’s not at all poorly-written, but it’s just a fun adventure book that doesn’t try to be anything more than that. which is totally enough for me to have loved it, and to wish it had been around when i was wee; it’s just not sleeping in my heart or anything. (shhh, don’t wake Rooftoppers)
twelve-year-old emily has two interests: books and puzzles. fortunately for her, garrison griswold, the willy wonka of book publishing exists, and has created a game called “Book Scavenger,” which is a sort of geocaching treasure hunt where players from across the country compete to crack codes online which lead to hidden books in the real world, earning them points to rise up the ladder of rankings named after famous sleuths to achieve the top status of “Sherlock Holmes.”
emily has just moved to san francisco, home to garrison griswold and book scavenger’s headquarters. she’s very used to moving, at the mercy of her parents’ dream to live in every u.s. state, nomading across the country allowed to pack only one suitcase each, and one additional box of books. emily loves her parents and her older brother, but it’s a lonely life to always be the new girl. fortunately, she has her books to escape into, and the challenges of book scavenging, where her user name is “surly wombat.” the following is not a spoiler at all, but a lengthy digression about wombats (with pictures) that gets in the way of the review (much like this long explanatory sentence) so i spoiler-tagged it to maintain narrative flow (which i already ruined with this long explanatory sentence) View Spoiler »
upon her arrival in san francisco, she finds her first real friend living in the same building. james lee* is a chinese-american boy with a cowlick named steve who is just as obsessed with puzzles as emily. and when she introduces him to the book scavenger, it’s clear they were meant to be besties 4-eva.
meanwhile, garrison griswold is about to announce his brand new book scavenger mega-game when he is attacked and shot in the train station. during the struggle, a book of great significance ends up behind a trash can. the next day, on an unrelated book scavenger quest, with garrison griswold clinging to life in the hospital and the very fate of book scavenger hanging in the balance, emily and james (and steve!) discover this book, which turns out to be the first clue in the mega-game! and so begins an adventure of clue-solving and friendship and running from the men who shot griswold and figuring out who is responsible for masterminding the attack. it’s a romp of a book, just fun fun bookfun with charming characters that teaches readers about edgar allan poe but also about san francisco-centric writers like dashiell hammett and the beats.
this book is a love letter to san francisco, a place i have never been but where i will be going in the fall. and i already knew i wanted to go to city lights while i am out there, but after reading this book, i also want to go to hollister’s bookstore, although i think, like book scavenger itself, it only exists in this book.
but this book also made me want to see lombard street because – fun!
it’s an adventure book, but it also has solid values, where emily learns how to be a real friend for the first time, and there is an emphasis upon family bonds and sacrifice, and yeah – it gets a little treacly in places, but i think that’s perfectly appropriate in books for this age, so it’s not groany or anything. and it really made me want to reread those liza, bill and jed mysteries by peggy parish, which are the best MG scavenger hunt books ever.
books, codes, san francisco. you could do worse things with your time.
*which is also the name of the character in Everything I Never Told You, so i was having fun pretending this was a prequel.
