It's been two months since Travis' family moved from their shabby old house to a development so new that it seems totally unreal. There's one place, though, where Travis can still connect with his old life: the Salinas library. Travis and his family used to go there together every Saturday, but now he bikes to it alone, re-reading his favorite books.
It's only natural that Travis likes the work of John Steinbeck - after all, Salinas is Steinbeck's hometown. But that can't explain why suddenly Travis is seeing Steinbeck's characters spring to life. There's the homeless man in the alley behind the library, the line of figures at the top of a nearby ridge, the boy who writes by night in an attic bedroom. Travis has met them all before - as a reader. But why are they here now? And how?
As Travis struggles to answer these questions, budget cuts threaten his library. And so he embarks on a journey through Steinbeck's beautiful California landscape, looking for a way to save his safe haven. It's only then that he begins to sort out fact from fiction, discovering the many ways a story can come alive - and stumbling into a story Steinbeck never told.
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"Really enjoyed this story once I got to sit down with it. Modern Salinas, childhood home of John Steinbeck, is having its library (named for Steinbeck) closed due to economic conditions (eerily close to all the library closures currently happening). An 8th grade boy, Travis, gets involved with the community's efforts to stop the closure. Meanwhile, he begins to see some unusual things: what appears to be characters from some of Steinbeck's stories come to life, as well as what he suspects to be the ghost of Steinbeck himself. When he meets another local author (and lifelong fan of Steinbeck), they explore and re-visit the landscape of some of his stories with a mysterious past, with intriguing results. Great for 5th for 8th graders, and lovers of books, libraries, and/or John Steinbeck."
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Tamsyn (4 out of 5 stars)