About this item
Highlights
- Now in paperback, If You Find This is the story of unlikely friendships, unexpected bravery and eleven-year-old Nicholas Funes's quest to prove his grandfather's treasure is real, mixing mystery and adventure in the tradition of Louis Sachar, Avi, and E.L. Konigsburg.Nicholas is a math and music genius with no friends and a huge problem: His father has lost his job, and they'll have to sell their house, which holds the only memory Nicholas has of his younger brother.
- 8-12 Years
- 7.5" x 5.2" Paperback
- 368 Pages
- Juvenile Fiction, Action & Adventure
Description
About the Book
Mixing The Goonies with Holes into a complex treasure-hunt adventure, Baker delivers a story of unlikely friendships, unexpected bravery, and 11-year-old Nicholas Funes' quest to prove his grandfather's treasure is real. A Booklist Top Ten 2015 Debut Novel.Book Synopsis
Now in paperback, If You Find This is the story of unlikely friendships, unexpected bravery and eleven-year-old Nicholas Funes's quest to prove his grandfather's treasure is real, mixing mystery and adventure in the tradition of Louis Sachar, Avi, and E.L. Konigsburg.
Nicholas is a math and music genius with no friends and a huge problem: His father has lost his job, and they'll have to sell their house, which holds the only memory Nicholas has of his younger brother. Just in time, Nicholas's senile grandfather arrives, filled with tales of priceless treasure he has hidden somewhere in town--but where?
With the help of misfit classmates, two grandfathers, a ghosthouse, hidden messages, séances, and an uncanny mind for numbers, Nicholas stages a nursing home breakout, tangles with high schoolers in smugglers' tunnels, and gets swept up in a duel with the biggest bullies in the neighborhood. Will it be enough to find the treasure and save his house?
Review Quotes
Praise for If You Find This: A Booklist Top Ten 2015 Debut Novel
An Edgar Award Nominee for Best Juvenile Mystery
"This unique book is both a ripping adventure and a piercing portrait of an extraordinary boy. You've never heard a tale told like this... For that, and many other reasons, it demands to be read and discussed."--Adam Gidwitz, New York Times bestselling author of A Tale Dark and Grimm
* "Reminiscent of Louis Sachar's Holes, this is a rich, captivating tale about family and redemption that redefines the meaning of treasure."--Booklist
"Lively, entertaining and satisfying."--Kirkus
"Smugglers caves, graveyards, ghost houses, seances, and...maps come together to make an intriguing mystery for the group to solve as the characters wrestle with their past selves in hopes of a better future. The story is enhanced with musical and mathematical notations (terms like "forte" and "piano" appear as subscript throughout, modifying actions and dialogue), giving readers a glimpse into Nicholas's impressive brain and adding an unusual layer of interest and beauty to debut author Baker's storytelling."--Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Matthew Baker's stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, New England Review, The Kenyon Review, and Best of the Net, and been shortlisted in Best American Short Stories. He has held creative writing fellowships through the Fulbright Commission, the MacDowell Colony, and Vanderbilt University, among others. He was born and lives in Michigan. If You Find This is his first novel.