Crunch by Leslie Connor

4^th Grade and Up

Dewey Marriss never guessed that the gas pumps would run dry the same week he promised to manage the family’s bicycle-repair business. Suddenly everyone needs a bike. And nobody wants to wait.

With the crunch stranding Dewey’s parents far up north with no way home, it’s up to Dewey and his older sister, Lil, to look after their younger siblings and run the bike shop all on their own.

Each day Dewey and his siblings feel their parents’ absence more and more. The Marriss Bike Barn is busier than ever. And just when he is starting to feel crunched himself, Dewey discovers that bike parts are missing from the shop. He’s sure he knows who’s responsible – or does he?

The Marriss kids consist of five siblings: Lily (18), Dewey (14), Vince (13), and the twins Angus and Eva (5). Stories about families are always more interesting with multiple children.

My knowledge of bikes and bike parts are pretty limited so I don’t really understand what parts of the bike are being repaired or what bike parts are being stolen. So if you’re interested in bikes, this will be fun to read.

My favorite scene in this entire book is Dewey riding a tandem bicycle on the highway. Since no one can use their cars, people were biking instead. The idea of people biking on the highway is just a great image to me. Dewey even picks up a ‘hitch-biker’ during this scene.

My neighborhood had a Beach Streets event where the city blocked a bunch of roads and everyone biked in the empty streets. It was so cool to not have any cars on the streets. It was so quiet. I almost wished it was like that all the time.

This is a great book for families to listen to on audio during a family road trip.

Click Here To Start by Denis Markell

5^th Grade and Up

12-year-old Ted Gerson has spent most of his summer playing video games. So when his great uncle dies and leaves him all the so-called treasure in his overstuffed junk shop of an apartment, Ted explores it like it’s another level to beat. To his shock, he finds that eccentric Great Uncle Ted actually has set the place up like a real-life escape-the-room game!

With help from his friends Caleb and Isabel, they set off to win the greatest game they’ve ever played. With each puzzle Ted and his friends solve, they get closer to unraveling the mystery but someone dangerous is hot on their heels, and he’s not about to let them get away with the fortune.

This is another book that got my attention by having a cool cover. That’s how most books attract me, by having a cool cover or having a cool title. This one has both.

I’m not really into video games. The computer games I played as a kid were Pajama Sam, Spy Fox, Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, Blues Clues, Arthur, and ISpy games. So pretty tame games but I loved them.

I think I’d like these escape the room games but I don’t have the time for them. That’s why I’m reading this book. Simply said, this is a great adventure/mystery book for kids. For any parents out there who have a kid who plays too many video games, try getting them to read this book. The author left the story with one question left unanswered so I’m hoping for a sequel soon because it was a big question.

For fans of ‘Book Scavengers’, I highly recommend this book.