The Grave Digger

October 25, 2019

Gr 5-8-Cap Cooper is a 12-year-old boy and aspiring inventor living in 1867 Ohio with his parents. Cap loves his parents very much, so when his dad tells him that he needs help with a job in the middle of the night, Cap obediently follows. He is not happy with the task he's been assigned-pulling corpses from their graves-but they need the money for his mom's medical expenses. When the second body he retrieves comes back to life, Cap begins to uncover a multitude of secrets in his community, all possibly wrapped around the opening of the new local medical school. With a little help from a friend and lots of wit and courage, Cap sets out to uncover some clues and solve this mystery once and for all. This novel is a quickly paced story suitable for 12-13-year-olds. There are many characters, but the reader doesn't get to know many of them very well. The character of Cap is likable; he is curious and just wants to please his parents. The plot is quite sinister but moves the story along, sometimes in many directions at once. VERDICT A fun read for curious middle-schoolers who like slightly spooky adventure and mysteries.-Sara Jurek, Children's English Library, Stuttgart, Germany

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