Seven wonders of Sassafras Springs By Birney, Betty G.

Title: Seven wonders of Sassafras Springs

Author: Birney, Betty G.

Illustration: Matt Phelan.

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Comments

CIP Info Eben McAllister searches his small town to see if he can find anything comparable to the real Seven Wonders of the World. Early Saturday morning of the reading challenge. I picked up this book originally because the name cracked me up. As I read it I really could identify with it. I grew up in a very small town in South Dakota. I spent my whole life wanting to get out of South Dakota and to see the world. Eben wants to see the world or at least get out of Sassafras Springs. His father makes a bet with him that if Eben fines the Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs, then he will send Eben to visit relatives in Colorado. I love how Eben was able to find how each person had a wonder. Each person had a past, a history, and a bit more than they appeared to everyone else. Eben got the whole town talking about his Wonders and talked about whom he saw and who he didn’t. The “wonders” don’t appear too much on the surface a doll, a bookshelf, a table, a ship in a bottle, a woven piece of fabric, a model of a city, and a saw. But the stories that went with each item were special. A great book with a message for young and old, sometimes the world is in your backyard if you look hard enough.