08/01/2024
Reading Level: 2 - 3 • Interest Level: 9 - 12

The Key to Surviving Summer

Available: 08/01/2024
Author: Sandi Van
Copyright: 2025
Specs: 5 1/2” x 8 1/4” • 200 pp. • Excerpts from other Books within this Series, Written in Verse, About the Author Section, High / Low Content
HC ed.: 9781978597297 • $25.80 | $19.40
eBook: 9781978597310 • $25.80 | $19.40
Pbk. ed.: 9781978597303 • $16.35 | $14.20

It’s the summer before sophomore year, and Moe is stuck in the middle of Nowhere-ville, in a broken-down cottage on Lake Ontario with no one her age for miles. Her neighbor’s grandson, Zeke, definitely doesn’t count. He is only eight, but desperation and loneliness force Moe to follow Zeke on his adventures. After a nasty storm, Moe finds a strange key and begins having visions of a girl roller-skating at sunset and then disappearing into the lake. Moe and Zeke comb the shoreline looking for clues, but when his grandparents find out, they forbid Zeke from spending any more time with Moe. Faced with even more isolation and increasingly vivid visions, Moe must figure out what happened to the mysterious girl and why it forced her temporary hometown into silence.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard pick!

“Delivers quick pacing and an emotional core with wide appeal. … A bingeable mystery.” — Kirkus Reviews

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Sample spread from The Key to Surviving Summer

About the Author

Sandi Van

Sandi Van is a writer, counselor, and former soccer coach from Buffalo, New York. She is the author of YA verse novels Everything It Takes, Listen Up, and Second in Command. Mom to two boys, both adopted from South Korea, Sandi hates the term soccer mom but embraces her role as one and loves cheering from the sidelines. You can follow her on social media @sandivanwrites or visit her website at sandivan.com.