(G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)

In this hair-raising novel by Vermont author and Middlebury College alum, Brian, Ollie and Coco, still banded closely together for safety, make a chilling discovery about the “incident” last October when their school field trip to a local farm went horribly awry, with scarecrows come-to-life and their first encounter with the smiling man — they weren’t the only kids who remembered what happened. Months later, after narrowly surviving being trapped at a haunted ski resort, a sailboat outing on Lake Champlain to enjoy Champ Tours — a chance to spot the legendary lake monster — sounds like a perfect getaway. The day, however, does not  go as planned, and when the boat is run aground on an uncharted island that even the very experienced boat captain has never, ever seen before, a treacherous fate awaits the passengers. Middle-grade readers, ages 8-12, and their adult reading companions, will be thrilled, and frightened, by this latest adventure, the third in a four-part, four-season series set in Vermont. Katherine Arden, author of the New York Times bestselling “Winternight Trilogy,” which began with the incomparable “Bear and the Nightingale,” is equally at home in the murky depths of “Dark Waters;” this is a very fun, and eerie, read-aloud.

— Reviewed by Jenny Lyons of The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury.

8 Great Late-Summer Children’s Books

Cat Problems, by Jory John

Big Nate: Aloha! by Lincoln Peirce

Spy School at Sea, by Stuart Gibbs

Dead Wednesday, by Jerry Spinelli

Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares, by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Fast Pitch, by Nic Stone

Friends Forever, by Shannon Hale

Negative Cat, by Sophie Blackall