THE SEVEN WONDERS OF SASSAFRAS SPRINGS

In this fun, folksy outing set in 1923, 12-year-old Eben McAllister has seven days to find seven wonders in Sassafras Springs, Mo. Convinced that his ordinary berg has nothing on the Seven Wonders of the World, Eben reluctantly accepts his father’s challenge: “I just think there’s no use searching the world for Wonders when you can’t see the marvels right under your own nose.” What follows is a weeklong odyssey where Eben asks people he’s known his whole life if they have anything special lying around. They do. It’s not the objects themselves that are so extraordinary—an applehead doll named Miss Zeldy, a rickety bookcase, a table—as much as his neighbors’ magical stories that accompany them that will inspire everything from chuckles to chills. The matter-of-fact first-person narrative is refreshing, as Eben is neither overly precocious nor terribly troubled—just a small-town boy with wanderlust who learns that an explorer doesn’t have to travel too far afield to have an adventure, but that leaving town still sounds awfully good. (Fiction. 8-11)