The Great Snapping Turtle Adventure — Susan Yaruta-Young

A Mom's Choice Awards (R) Honoree. When Fred takes stepsons Max and Charles to Elliott Island for a day of crabbing, none of them are expecting to encounter anything out of the ordinary. But all bets are off when you drive out that long narrow road to the End of the World.An old woman gives them a giant snapping turtle to sell, and their day gets weird. And when they stumble across the same woman's gravestone--with her death date inscribed, but hidden in the ground--their trip becomes stranger still.As every answer leads to more questions, what starts as a "Boys' Day Out" becomes an adventure that will not soon be forgotten."The Great Snapping Turtle Adventure's title doesn't adequately reveal the wonderful read in store for young teens. Though billed as a mystery, it's actually a powerful ghost story - and young teens with affection for ghosts will find this a compelling story indeed."It begins when Fred takes his stepsons Max and Charles to an island for a day of crabbing. While this doesn't seem to portend much of an adventure, it turns into one when a strange old woman gives them a giant snapping turtle to sell, and when they stumble over her hidden grave and realize they may have just interacted with a ghost."Every little town may have its own ghost and haunting story, but Max and Charles didn't expect their own encounter or the mystery it brings up, which leads them on a chase through a small Eastern Shore water community and into the heart of both local environmental issues and a problem that tests two young detectives."Middle school readers will find the Maryland seaside setting, the challenges the two boys face, and both the mystery and the ramifications of the changing world around them to be thoroughly engrossing; a fine early introduction to the genres of mystery and environmental fiction."- D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review