Excerpt from Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

LARGEST BLACK BEAR TRACKS ON RECORD

REWARD FOR KILL OR CAPTURE OF GREAT APPALACHIAN BEAR

There was still the sound—airy, like a long breath, only not that. I followed it until I came to an old phonograph with a record spinning on the turntable, but the needle was at the end, making only that rhythmic whispering sound. There was a collection of record albums, all neatly placed on a shelf. I was about to see which record had been playing when I heard a voice from a back corner of the room. "They don't know where he's buried."

I spun around, gripping the towel about my shoulders. It was Early Auden.

Excerpted from Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool. Copyright © 2013 by Clare Vanderpool. Excerpted by permission of Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.