Published by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Summary:  When Ryanna gets an invitation from her estranged maternal grandparents to spend the summer at their house on a lake in the Poconos, she’s not sure if she wants to go.  But questions about her late mother motivate her to accept, and what she had imagined as a few quiet months with grandparents turns out to be a fun, busy summer surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Partway through her time there, she learns that her grandparents have been forced to sell the camp, and that everything will be bulldozed and developed into condos in the fall.  Ryanna and her cousins discover a treasure hunt her mother created when she was 12 that could lead to the piece of paper her grandparents need to stop the sale of their property.  It’s a race against time as the kids slowly figure out the mystery and Ryanna unravels her own mystery about her mother and the early days of her own childhood.  385 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  A perfect summer read with an idyllic setting, lots of interesting characters, some family secrets to discover, and a mystery or two to solve.  Morgan Matson perfectly captures the feel of a tech-free summer spent outdoors with friends, and the pacing will keep readers turning the pages all the way to the end.

Cons:  I know from sad experience that a lot of readers in the intended demographic will be turned off by the page count.