Gr 6-9 Once a haven for hippies and starving artists, eighth-grader Mac Slater's seaside hometown in Australia has begun to be recognized as one of the world's coolest destinations. After watching Mac crash his latest extreme invention, a flying bike, Coolhunters, a Web-based company looking for young people to post their reports on the hottest new trends, invites him to participate in a contest to become their next correspondent. All he has to do to win is post daily videos of the coolest trends coming out of Kings Bay and attract more online votes than his competition. The gig comes with cash, free stuff, and travel opportunities, including a trip to New York. The problem is, unconventional Mac is not sure he knows what "cool" even means. A geeky outcast at school, he lives in a converted double-decker bus with his street-performer mom. His estranged dad, still living nearby, is a prickly, aging activist and inventor who spends time working on oddball projects like an energy-capturing "lightning farm" when he's not serving time for civil disobedience. Mac's biggest obstacle, though, is his cutthroat classmate Cat DeVrees, a beautiful, calculating fashionista with a huge wardrobe and a goony boyfriend. There's no way she's going to let some loser get between her and the big-time celebrity she feels entitled to. First in a planned series, this novel affirms a truth adolescents need to be reminded of: that true cool comes from within and can't be obtained with a credit card."Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI" Copyright 2010 Media Source Inc.
Geeky Mac Slater faces off against popular-girl Cat DeVrees in a "coolhunters" competition. Each contestant video-blogs for five days about what's cool. Quirky, independent Mac, along with his nerdy friend Paul and Mac's humorously eccentric parents, ultimately outshines shallow Cat in this well-written, inventive underdog story set in Australia.
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