"Adam Henderson is a computer genius. At 5, he took apart circuit boards the way other kids play with Legos. At 9, he had made a virtual fortune from online games, spending his money to design new surveillance cameras and firewalls. When he reaches middle school, Adam finds a crew of like-minded friends, and they stumble into tracking. Not tracking animals, but tracking criminals. Little do they know where it will take them." -Nancy Keane
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As the four dig deeper into the shadowy world of online crime, they soon learn that things aren't always as they seem." -Scholastic.com "Read the book. Play the game. Solve the clues. Win the prizes.
Five minutes before she died, Grace Cahill changed her will. With one shaky signature she changed the destiny of the entire Cahill family, and perhaps that of the world as well. That signature would set into motion events that could mean the end of civilization as we know it. “The children are old enough. They are our only chance,” Grace said to William, her attorney and closest friend for half her life. “If they don’t succeed, 500 years of work will have been for nothing.” And with that final statement, Grace Cahill closed her eyes for the last time. About 400 family members came to her funeral. About 40 of them were invited to the reading of the will she had kept secret for so long and had signed so recently. William played a videotape she’d made months before, in case she decided to sign her secret, alternative will. In it she challenged her heirs to the most important task they would ever face. Each of them was given a voucher for a million dollars. They could choose to keep it, or they could turn it in and get a clue instead, the first of 39 clues that could lead one individual or one team to the most important treasure in the world, and make them powerful beyond belief. That clue would become their only inheritance—no money, no keepsakes, no property of any kind. Which of Grace’s relatives chose to accept the challenge? Ian and Natalie Kabra were the first to get a clue. They looked like matching supermodels, but that exterior covered their selfish and ruthless natures. The five members of the Holt family were next, looking buff and muscular, like a family of GI Joes—even the mom looked like she should shave and start chewing on a big cigar. Alistair Oh, an elderly Korean man with a diamond tipped cane volunteered to be the third team. Irina Spasky, whose twitchy eye was responsible for her nickname, Spaz, said she’d play alone. Then Jonah Wizard, from the TV show Who Wants to be a Gangsta? sauntered up, with his silver chains, ripped jeans, and in-your-face attitude. Finally, there were only two left who hadn’t decided. Amy and Dan Cahill were the two people closest to Grace, who’d loved her without caring about her money. Amy looked at her brother, “Remember,” she thought at him, “what Grace said to us: ‘You will make me proud.’ This is what she was talking about. This is our chance, our adventure.” She took his voucher and William’s lighter, and two million more dollars went up in smoke. The game had begun." -Scholastic.com Series Website
"Amy and Dan follow a lead hidden in the sheet music of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They trace his life through Austria, but their relatives aren’t far behind. Barely escaping police and a violent explosion, the pair find themselves navigating the crowded canals of Venice. They must track down the Clue while avoiding rival Cahills, booby traps, and an angry mob in the Janus stronghold." -Scholastic.com
"Amy and Dan were on their way to Tokyo, but even before the plane took off, their evil cousins Ian and Natalia got the best of them!
Amy and Dan Cahill had given up a cool two million dollars for the chance to beat the rest of the Cahill family and find the greatest source of power in the world. Since then, they'd nearly been killed in a collapsing building in Philadelphia, attacked by monks in Austria, and chased through the canals of Venice. They were in the lead, but when they got to the departure gate for their flight to Tokyo, the woman taking boarding passes asked them to step out of line, then disappeared with their boarding passes. The last few passengers were getting on board, when Amy and Dan were nearly knocked over by two strangers in black coats who were also heading for the gate, waving their boarding passes. "Welcome aboard, Amy and Dan," said one of the gate attendants, ushering them on board. The two looked around as soon as they stepped into the walkway, and turned down their coat collars so Amy and Dan could see their faces. It was Ian and Natalie Kabras, the Cahill cousins they'd left unconscious in a burning room in Venice! It didn't matter how hard Amy and Dan tried, they hadn't been able to get far enough ahead so the Kabrases couldn't catch up. They were older, smarter, colder, meaner, more devious, and more ambitious. They didn't let anything stop them. And now they were on the plane to Japan, traveling as Amy and Dan Cahill. Amy and Dan watched the plane taxi away from the gate. Moments later, there was an announcement that everyone had to evacuate the terminal immediately. Amy and Dan ran outside, but the airport bus was just pulling away. And a large black limo screeched into the empty spot at the curb, and the driver gestured for Amy and Dan to get in. It wasn't till the limo pulled away from the curb that they realized who was sitting in the back seat—a pleasant faced Oriental man with a silk suit and white gloves, another Cahill family member in the race for the money and the power—Alistair Oh—who had abandoned them in a burning building, planted a transmitter on them so they could be followed, and now told them that he was on their side, something that was obviously a lie. But he had gotten them away from the chaos at the airport, and he was offering to fly them to Japan on his private jet. And the truth of the matter was that they were stuck without him. Nellie, Saladin, the swords and their suitcases were on the plane with Ian and Natalie Kabras. Amy and Dan had no money and couldn't speak Japanese. Unfortunately, along with all the other Cahills, Alistair Oh was not to be trusted, and his plans were going just the way he wanted them to go." This booktalk was written by Joni Richards Bodart, university professor, writer, librarian, consultant, and booktalking expert. Series Website
"Rumor has it that Katherine Cahill hid a Clue in Egypt 500 years ago that may have been connected to three golden statues of the Egyptian goddess Sakhet. Amy and Dan have managed to get one of the statues, but their hunt for the other two leads them to a mummy’s tomb and a confrontation with one of their deadliest enemies." -Scholastic
"What if you were given the opportunity to change your looks. Would you do it? What if you had no choice? For Tally, it is just a few short months until her 16th birthday. Only a few short months of being an Ugly. She knows that on her birthday, she will become a Pretty and move from Uglyville to the nice apartments for the New Pretties. Where there is never ending fun. Where the parties never stop. She has never really imagined that she had a choice. Until she meets Shay. Shay tells her about a place where you don't have to become a Pretty. Where you can remain your own unique self. But it is forbidden to go there. Tally doesn't really believe Shay and refuses to leave with her. But when Tally arrives for her operation, she is told that she will not be operated on until after she betrays her friend and leads the Specials to the Smoke. What choice does she have? She certainly doesn't want to remain an Ugly forever. Would you?" -Nancy Keane's Book Talks - Quick and Simple
"Tally Youngblood has become a pretty. She is living her new life just as the other new pretties. But she has a nagging feeling that there is something important that she has forgotten. Something she promised she'd never forget. And now her new boyfriend Zane keeps asking her questions about her time in the Smoke. Tally remembers some of it but can't understand why Zane would want to know. That was before. Before she was pretty. But the night of the party, Tally runs into Croy. He has risked everything to find Tally and remind her of her time at the Smoke. He has come to give her the cure. What is Croy talking about? The cure for what? Being pretty? But Tally remembers enough to try the cure. With Zane. But something has gone terribly wrong with Zane. And now the other Crims are asking about a cure. Is it time for Tally to come to grips with what is going on around her?" -Nancy Keane's Book Talks - Quick and Simple
"Having a super-honed body designed for extreme fighting and government intelligence missions can’t be all that bad, right? After her experiences trying to save her boyfriend, Zane, Tally Youngblood has been recruited to be exactly what she had always feared: a Special. Specials work in the government’s Special Circumstances as perfectly programmed agents sent out to get rid of the New Smoke rebels – permanently. The problem is that Tally was once one of those very rebels. Going undercover and interacting with old friends, Tally feels as if she is betraying them, and herself. But she continues to try to fit in with the Cutters, a secret faction led by her old friend Shay, and adapt to her new role as a Special. Still, Tally must make some very hard choices. Should she listen to her new programming, or should she listen to her heart? In this third book of a trilogy Tally struggles to stay true to herself. In the process, she makes a mistake which could endanger not only her own life, but the stability of the entire society" Nancy Keane's Book Talks - Quick and Simple
Author's Website "Extras, the final book in the Uglies series, is set a couple of years after the “mind-rain,” a few earth-shattering months in which the whole world woke up. The cure has spread from city to city, and the pretty regime that kept humanity in a state of bubbleheadedness has ended. Boundless human creativity, new technologies, and old dangers have been unleashed upon the world. Culture is splintering, the cities becoming radically different from each other as each makes its own way into this strange and unpredictable future . . .
One of the features of the new world is that everyone has a "feed," which is basically their own blog/myspace/tv channel. The ratings of your feed (combined with how much the city interface overhears people talking about you) determines your social status—so everyone knows at all times how famous they are. As Scott Westerfeld explored the themes of extreme beauty in the first three Uglies books, now he takes on the world's obsession with fame and popularity. And how anyone can be an instant celebrity." Author's Website Author Interview |