Finders Keepers - Hardcover

Shelley Tougas is an award-winning writer of nonfiction for children, including Little Rock Girl 1957, and the author of The Graham Cracker Plot, her debut novel. She lives in Hudson, Wisconsin.

Gr 4–6—Blessed with an active imagination, 10-year-old Christa Boyd-Adams and 11-year-old Alex Clark take to the outdoors, pretending to climb Mount Everest with plastic cup oxygen masks, butter knife ice picks, duct-taped fork boot spikes, and walkie-talkie cassette tapes. Life at the summer cabin is Christa's favorite place to be, but things change when her father loses his job as a history teacher and the cabin goes up for sale. The friends plot to undermine any attempt to sell it. During one of their escapades, the duo unearths money hidden long ago, and old stories of Al Capone burying his loot start to surface. Christa and Alex want to find the cash to save the cabin, but they discover others have joined the game. Readers will enjoy the tongue-in-cheek humor and fast-paced story that revels in outdoor summertime fun. Family issues drive the heart of the narrative, and Christa, described as immature by her family, must face events as they unfold. Lovable and somewhat prone to mishap, Christa learns about the angst a struggling family must endure and the dynamics of true friendship from young and old. VERDICT Lighter than Gennifer Choldenko's Al Capone Does My Shirts (Putnam, 2004), this is an entertaining middle grade mystery.—Robyn Gioia, Antilles Middle School, Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico