Kalea’s dad runs the local scrapyard at the edge of town. She loves spending time there, but recently she’s seen some shadowy figures lurking around. The strange activities make Kalea feel uneasy. Finding out about the Project Adventure kid-detective agency from Lisa, she wants their help to figure out what’s going on..
Ethan, Matt and Lisa meet Kalea at the cool scrapyard. It quickly becomes clear to them why she’s suspicious and they come up with a master plan. Lisa connects the shady persons at the scrapyard with the problems at the nearby Bird Sanctuary. But their ambitious plan of action puts them in grave danger, as they face freezing winter weather and sinister villains.
Will they find out what’s happening at the scrapyard and save Kalea’s dad? Can they outsmart the dangerous villains? Will they escape the life-threatening situations they find themselves in? And will Kalea want to be friends with Ethan even after the adventure is over?
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction/Adventure
Age Appropriate: 8-12 years’ old
Number of Pages: 156 pages
Date of Publication: 03/05/2021
Author/Illustrator/Publisher:
The book was written by David Konrad who mainly writes adventure books for middle grade children. The cover of the book was created by Dion MBD.
Rating: 5/5
Review:
A book filled with adventure and mystery with an action-packed plot aimed at middle grade children. ‘The Scrapyard Shakedown is the fourth book in the Project Adventure series by Konrad.
This time the main characters are back (Ethan, Matt and Lisa) to solve another mystery. They meet Kalea who informed them that her dad runs the local scrapyard at the edge of town and that lately she has been seeing strange activities and people around it. They all begin investigating what is going on and soon Lisa realizes that whatever is happening is affecting the nearby Bird Sanctuary.
The first thought that I had reading this book was that the characters had matured through the series which is really good to see, they haven’t changed a lot in terms of personality but there is a sense of maturity in their thoughts and reasoning. This type of subtle character development and maturation is something that I always look in books that are part of a series as well as how much the author has developed over their career.
The plot is interesting and middle graders will definitely enjoy a book with adventure and mystery in it and where the main characters are expected to make decisions but also to trust in their friends and help each other. From book one we are able to see that friendship is an important theme and one that gets stronger with each book which truly reflects the strong friendships that children have and it is important for fiction like this to encourage children to value them.
The cover of the book is really cool and which illustrates an exciting part of the story.
Availability: The book is available on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle edition
Shelf Life 
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