Curious City joined Chris Lenois on Green Mountain Mornings for this discussion of Summer Reading. Listen to the podcast here.
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Book Scavenger
By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Age range: 9 – 14 Years
Locate at a Indie Bookstore
For twelve-year-old Emily, the best thing about moving to San Francisco is that it’s the home city of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, book publisher and creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger (a game where books are hidden in cities all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles). Upon her arrival, however, Emily learns that Griswold has been attacked and is now in a coma, and no one knows anything about the epic new game he had been poised to launch. Then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold himself, and might contain the only copy of his mysterious new game.
Racing against time, Emily and James rush from clue to clue, desperate to figure out the secret at the heart of Griswold’s new game–before those who attacked Griswold come after them too.
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Click on Image to See a Ghost
The Mothman’s Curse
by Christine Hayes
Illustrated by James K. Hindle
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Age range: 8 – 12 Years
Locate at a Indie Bookstore
When Josie and her brothers uncover a haunted camera, the Mothman legend becomes a terrifying reality that threatens their entire town in this spooky and action-filled novel.
Josie may live in the most haunted town in America, but the only strange thing she ever sees is the parade of oddball customers that comes through her family’s auction house each week. But when she and her brothers discover a Polaroid camera that prints pictures of the ghost of local recluse John Goodrich, they are drawn into a mystery dating back over a hundred years. A desperate spirit, cursed jewelry, natural disasters, and the horrible specter of Mothman all weave in and out of the puzzle that Josie must solve to break the curse and save her own life.
Fake Your Own Mothman Sighting!
View, Download & Print Mothman Cut-out Sheet
Download Digital Mothman (.png)
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Tiger Boy
By Mitali Perkins
Illustrated by Jamie Hogan
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Age range: 7 – 10 Years
Locate at a Indie Bookstore
“One of the new tiger cubs has escaped from the reserve!”
When a tiger cub escapes from a nature reserve near Neel’s island village, the rangers and villagers hurry to find her before the cub’s anxious mother follows suit and endangers them all. Mr. Gupta, a rich newcomer to the island, is also searching—he wants to sell the cub’s body parts on the black market. Neel and his sister, Rupa, resolve to find the cub first and bring her back to the reserve where she belongs.
The hunt for the cub interrupts Neel’s preparations for an exam to win a prestigious scholarship at a boarding school far from home. Neel doesn’t mind—he dreads the exam and would rather stay on his beloved island in the Sunderbans of West Bengal with his family and friends.
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The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club
By Phillip Hoose
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Age range: 12 – 17 Years
Locate at a Indie Bookstore
At the outset of World War II, Denmark did not resist German occupation. Deeply ashamed of his nation’s leaders, fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen resolved with his brother and a handful of schoolmates to take action against the Nazis if the adults would not. Naming their secret club after the fiery British leader, the young patriots in the Churchill Club committed countless acts of sabotage, infuriating the Germans, who eventually had the boys tracked down and arrested. But their efforts were not in vain: the boys’ exploits and eventual imprisonment helped spark a full-blown Danish resistance. Interweaving his own narrative with the recollections of Knud himself, here is Phillip Hoose’s inspiring story of these young war heroes.
2015 Boston Globe–Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book
“A poignant, wordless storyline . . this ode to everyday beauty sings sweetly.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“A reminder that what looks like play can sometimes be a sacrament.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An emotionally moving, visually delightful ode to the simple powers of observation and empathy. . . . A book to savor slowly and then revisit again and again.” — School Library Journal, starred review
“A quiet, graceful book about the perspective-changing wonder of humble, everyday pleasures.” — Booklist, starred review
