Hahn, Mary Downing.
CLOSED FOR THE SEASON
New York : Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009
IL 5-8, RL 4.3
ISBN 054708451X

(2 booktalks)

When Logan Forbes and his family move into a rundown house, he finds out it was the site of a murder three years ago. Arthur, the boy living next door, tells Logan about the history behind the house’s previous owner, Mrs. Donaldson. She is thought to have embezzled funds from The Magic Forest, a local amusement park, and been murdered by people looking for the stolen money.

Logan and Arthur deal with bullies and prejudices, even among the adults, and they search the house and come closer to solving the mystery of the missing money and the murder, things get scary. But their friendship and shared interest in solving the mystery overrides all as they dig deeper into what really happened.  (New Hampshire Great Stone Face nominee, 2011)

Booktalk #2

Logan had no intention of ever living in that house, it was creepy.  Rumor had it, that someone had been murdered there.  Little did he realize that this was the beginning of a deep, dark mystery involving stolen money and an old abandoned amusement park.  (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2011-2012)