Published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Summary: Adam and his parents are on their way home from Disney World, when they’re involved in a terrible car accident. Adam wakes up in the hospital, where he learns that his parents are missing and presumed dead. His last memory before the crash is of a huge creature in the road. This memory haunts him day and night, and continues to plague him when he goes to live with his quirky Uncle John. His Internet research makes him think he saw a sasquatch from the Florida swamps. Unable to face getting back to regular life, Adam runs away to find a man who also claims to have seen Bigfoot. Stanley has lost his wife and daughter to his Bigfoot obsession. He gives Adam some advice, but acts crazy enough that Adam sneaks off to search on his own. He ends up lost deep in the swamps…and what he finds there will change his life. Includes an author’s note about his own close encounter with something mysterious in the swamps. 224 pages; grades 4-7.
Pros: This book will sell itself from the cover and title alone. It’s also a good survival story with plenty of suspense. The author’s note will have kids buzzing about whether or not Bigfoot is real.
Cons: The story dragged a little when Adam first headed into the swamp. And for a relatively pampered suburban kid, he seemed to figure out how to survive on his own pretty quickly.
