Some secrets are small -- the size of a battery, or a button, or a scrap of paper. Other secrets are so big they can bury a man alive, or tear apart a family ... or even destroy the world. Omega City was both.
Gillian's dad is a historian who specializes in Cold War conspiracies and wrote a book about Aloysius Underberg, a brilliant Cold War engineer. But Dr. Underberg is missing and Gillian's dad has been discredited. When Gillian is faced with an opportunity to solve Underberg's greatest mystery and prove her dad right, she can't resist. She enlists the help of her brother Eric, best friend Savannah, a NASA obsessed boy from school (Howard), and Howard's brother Nate. Others are searching for Underberg's secrets too, and they will stop at nothing to get them first.
This is an adventurous mystery with a strong female protagonist. Gillian's team faces life-threatening situations, including nerve gas in an elevator, goons with guns, and scuba diving in unknown waters. I think middle-grade readers will enjoy this thrilling adventure. (for fans of Luck Uglies or City of Ember). Grades 5-8
I am using this book to play a guess for Red Game victim: Lydia Bennet
This ebook included three additional essays but none of the original essays in the book. They were pretty interesting. The Mockingjay essay helped me better understand why I dislike that book so much.
I'm not really finding what I'm looking for in these supplemental books though. I guess I really want an authorized encyclopedia of what Panem is like, more information about the other districts and the Dark Days... I guess I'll just have to fill in the holes for myself.
One of my favorite sub-genres is the pop culture essay collection, especially collections about favorite book series and television shows. I recently bought a copy of one of my favorites, Mapping the World of Harry Potter, and realized that it was actually produced by an imprint that specializes in just these sorts of things, called Smart Pop books, a division of small publisher BenBella Books. Out of curiosity, I went to their site...and ended up adding at least 10 books to my TBR. But I also stopped in at my local used bookstore- and found some of them for fifty cents apiece (free, if you take into account I used store credit instead of cash)! Of course, they aren't the only publisher in the genre-- Open Court also does those popular titles that incorporate philosophy into pop culture (The Simpsons and Philosophy, Harry Potter and Philosophy, etc) which I've enjoyed immensely and have started collecting. And I'm sure I've grabbed some others from other publishers I haven't bothered to research.
This Fab Finds Friday is a bit different, in that I'm combining things I found at the used bookstore this week with books I've rediscovered on my own shelves.
I'm hoping to get my hands on ones about Supernatural and Narnia soon, as well as Batman.
If anyone has some good suggestions for ones I should look out for, please let me know!