78 pages • 2 hours read
Jennifer Chambliss BertmanBook Scavenger
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Garrison Griswold, an elderly publisher and creator of a web-based puzzle game called Book Scavenger, travels to a press conference in San Francisco to announce the launch of a new game. Griswold is carrying a copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold-Bug” that he printed and bound himself, and Griswold’s new game hinges on secrets the book contains. In the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train station, he is accosted by two hired thugs who demand an “old book” he is rumored to be carrying.
One of the thugs shoots Griswold. The men search Griswold’s bag for the “old book,” accidentally discarding the new copy of Poe’s book near a trash can. As people begin emerging from the trains, the thugs flee. Before Griswold passes out from his injury, he worries that “His nearly priceless treasure would never be discovered” (7) and hopes the mistakenly discarded copy of “The Gold-Bug” will be found.
Chapter 2 Summary
Twelve-year-old Emily Crane has just arrived in San Francisco with her parents and teenage brother Matthew. Her parents want to live in each of the 50 states, so they annually uproot the family and travel to a new home. Emily regrets their nomadic lifestyle. Her one joy is the Book Scavenger game, in which she can connect with other online players and belong to their community. The family travels past the BART station where Griswold was shot, but Emily is unaware that her idol was just mugged there.
Chapter 3 Summary
After the family’s U-Haul pulls up in front of their new apartment building, Emily tries to tune into the radio program where Griswold is scheduled to make his big announcement. She learns that Griswold is missing but nothing else. Ms. Lee, the cranky landlady, tells the Cranes to move their truck out of the driveway.
As Emily lugs boxes up the stairs, she notices an oddly dressed boy about her age, sitting in the stairwell and “carefully [writing] in a Puzzle Power magazine” (20). Emily raises the window in her new bedroom and sees a rusty bucket being lowered by James via pulleys toward her. The bucket contains a piece of paper with a word puzzle inside. Emily quickly solves it and sends the pulley bucket back upstairs.
Chapter 4 Summary
Emily goes back out to the truck in search of one of her missing Book Scavenger notebooks, where she encounters James Lee, the neighbor boy, again. The Lee family has owned the house for generations. James found the missing notebook and returns it to Emily. James has also solved the cipher that will lead to Emily’s next book capture. Emily explains the rules to the Book Scavenger game: Players can hide a book in a secret location and then post clues online. Those who solve the clues and find the book earn points. The higher the point total, the higher the rank of the player. Emily explains the ranks, which are named after literary detectives: “Everyone starts at Encyclopedia Brown, then there’s Nancy Drew, Sam Spade, Miss Marple, Auguste Dupin, and Sherlock Holmes. The higher you go, the more you unlock on the website” (31-32). When Emily confesses that the game’s creator is her idol, James informs her that Griswold was shot and is in the hospital.
Chapter 5 Summary
Barry and Clyde, the two thugs who attacked Griswold, are on the phone with their secret employer waiting for instructions. Barry learns that Griswold’s newly bound copy of the Poe book, “The Gold-Bug,” was the one the employer wanted. The thugs are instructed to go back to the BART station and get it. Barry says they should wait a day to avoid the police investigating the crime scene.
Chapter 6 Summary
On Saturday, Emily is eager to capture her next book in the game, which is hidden at San Francisco’s Ferry Building. She invites James to go along, and her parents insist that her older brother Matthew must accompany them. When they arrive, a calling card indicates that the book has already been poached by a player named Babbage. Emily shows James her own player card displaying her gamer name, “Surly Wombat,” which amuses James. On their way home, the trio passes the BART station where Griswold was attacked.
Chapter 7 Summary
At the station where Griswold was mugged, Emily notices “The Gold-Bug” lying against the wall beside the garbage can. Thinking it might be a Book Scavenger find, she claims it and leaves her gamer card as proof. Meanwhile, Matthew posts a sticker of his favorite rock band, Flush, on the station wall despite signs that warn vandals will be prosecuted.
The two thugs arrive to retrieve the Poe book. Spying the kids, the thugs give chase. Emily, James, and Matthew run away, thinking the thugs are BART security police, and escape. Matthew is incredulous that the BART security would care about the sticker.
Chapter 8 Summary
Back at home, Emily wants to go online to investigate who left the Poe book in the station. Since the Crane family computer is in use, she and James go to his apartment, where Emily is impressed by its coziness and family history in comparison to the spare Crane apartment.
The Book Scavenger website doesn’t show a registration number for “The Gold-Bug.” Emily also checks on the poacher named Babbage. He is not only at the highest player level (Sherlock Holmes), but he goes to the same school that Emily and James will soon attend. As an afterthought, Emily also checks the chat forums where all the players are speculating what might happen to their beloved game if Griswold doesn’t recover.
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
The initial segment of the book establishes the central theme: Emily’s longing for a real home. We first meet Emily as her family moves to yet another temporary apartment. As is true throughout much of the book, the rest of her family is totally oblivious to her misery. Her fascination with the Lee house and its lengthy family history causes her to gravitate quickly to James as a friend. He has never known anything but stability, so Emily can vicariously experience a sense of home through him and his ancestral surroundings. Their rapport introduces the theme of friendship that will be examined more fully in later chapters.
Of equal importance in this section is the need to establish the rules of the Book Scavenger game. Bertman uses the character of James as a stand-in for the reader (who is equally ignorant) as Emily patiently walks James and the reader through the intricacies of the online game. Emily’s attempted retrieval of the book poached by Babbage serves to illustrate the game’s principles, the Book Scavenger community, and also to set up the bigger treasure hunt contained in the Poe work, “The Gold-Bug.”
Griswold sets the entire plot in motion by appearing in the first chapter, dropping hints about his mysterious new game, getting shot, and then disappearing for most of the rest of the novel. His appearance is important in helping to establish his character for the reader since he will remain such an influential figure throughout; it also serves as the inciting incident of the events of the novel. This early inclusion demonstrates the immense importance that Griswold and his game represent for Emily’s rootless existence.
