CHICAGO SCAVENGER

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Jessica Mlinaric wrote a guide to some of Chicago's lesser known attractions in Secret Chicago. Her follow-up is an interactive book that is clearly based on the research she did for her first book. Chicago Scavenger: The Ultimate Search for Chicago's Hidden Treasures features many of the same locations as the earlier book, but offers them up with a twist. Instead of telling you where to find the various places she describes, Mlinaric merely gives hints in the form of short poems, allowing the reader to conduct a scavenger hunt of Chicago to find the places Mlinaric had noted. While the former book described 90 locations, this one leads scavengers on a hunt for 343 destinations.

Mlinaric has followed the city's division into neighborhoods and has provided scavenger hunts for seventeen different areas, ranging from Pullman in the south to Rogers Park in the North. This division makes it easy for the reader/user to select a scavenger hunt for the specific part of the city they are visiting. It also provides an impetus to visit portions of the city which might be outside the reader's normal plans in order to find some of the places Mlinaric describes.

The clues take the forms of short poems, such as "Four Old Town faces cast in stone/Came from a German Theater/Displayed where comedy is shown/Discover the next big star here." They are also accompanied by a photograph to help you confirm you have found the correct location. However there is no additional information. In this case, Mlinaric does not explain that the busts came from the former Garrick Theatre on Randolph Street, the destruction of which kicked off the first attempts for historic preservation in Chicago. This lack of explanation means that while the book serves as a guide to finding places, it only hints at why any of the places are worth tracking down. In some cases, the poem/clues offer some hint at the import, other times, the clues are vague enough that there is no indication why a place should be sought out.

If Chicago Scavenger has a problem, it is that Mlinaric did not want to make the scavenger hunt too easy. The book does not contain an answer key for when the poems are too esoteric. Neither has she created a website with additional clues or answers. Instead, Mlinaric suggests that readers who are stumped and really want to know what they are looking for. Despite the invitation to contact her, the idea of reaching out to the author to figure out the answers to her riddles seems quite intrusive.

Chicago is a vibrant city and even lifelong Chicagoans can continue to discover new things about their city, especially when they begin to explore neighborhoods which are distant from their usual haunts. Chicago Scavenger provides the reader/scavenger with a guide to these worlds, even if it isn't as straightforward or as informative as other guidebooks, including Mlinaric's Chicago Secrets. People who wander through Pilsen or Lincoln Square for the first time may not have any idea where to begin in unraveling Mlinaric's clues, but the simple act of visiting new neighborhoods will help create a broader understanding of the city and its wide variety of cultural heritages.

At times, the vagueness of Chicago Scavenger can be infuriating, with its lack of answers or explanations about the locations, but it also offers a unique way of visiting and viewing Chicago. Leading the reader to a variety of places, from artwork to stores to restaurants to churches to Chicago institutions, it invites people to take a closer look at buildings and details they may have passed hundreds of times. And, of course, if you get stumped and can't find a place, you can always take Mlinaric up on her invitation to send an e-mail. She may even provide additional information about the target of your hunt.

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