The Virginia Mysteries Book 1
When young brothers Derek and Sam move with their family to Virginia, they have no idea what adventures the summer will bring. As the boys explore their creaky and the deep surrounding woods, they uncover the mystery of a valuable coin collection stolen from the local museum sixty years earlier. Join the boys as they spend their summer running from danger and searching the woods, secret caves, rushing waters, and hidden passageways for treasure and the rare 1877 Indian Head cent coin!
Summer of the Woods has been used by many elementary schools for their One Book, One School or similar program. It works as a great read-aloud for younger grades and the exciting adventure as proven to hold the attention of even the most upper elementary students.
Lexile Measure: 790L
Resources on this page include purchasing information, student introductory video example, video of the author reading Chapter One, downloadable PDFs of activity and trivia questions, word search, and links to resources about topics in the book.
Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, and Audiobook versions
My nine year old, reluctant reader fell in love with the story. The mystery and adventure drew her in right away…a perfect read aloud for my seven year olds. This fast paced, wholesome adventure story will leave you wanting to take a hike with your kids!
As a teacher I find it challenging to find an adventure book for students that is both engaging and suitable to share at the elementary level. Summer of the Woods is a keeper. The story is engaging, the suspense is authentic, and the characters are accessible to young readers. My entire class thoroughly enjoyed the fast-paced and well-conceived novel by Mr. Smith. Both boys and girls clamored for the next book in the series, which is a huge score for any teacher or parent. It does have a wholesome quality to it that harkens back to mystery books of my own youth, however, it deftly weaves language and topics of a modern generation into it so that my upper elementary friends found characters with whom they would gladly follow into the woods to seek adventure on a Saturday afternoon.
