Trackers

Gr 5—9—Fifteen-year-old wunderkind Adam Henderson grew up tinkering with the discarded components at his father's computer-repair shop and was soon given his own little annex called "The Vault," a place where he could hang out and work on his gadgets. By sixth grade—right around the time he met Finn, Emily, and Lewis—Adam was making enough money selling virtual stuff to hard-core gamers to allow him to begin developing an impressive portfolio of wireless surveillance gear. The kids discovered that they had complementary skill sets perfect for cyber-sleuthing, and the Trackers were born. In this first book of what will likely be a popular series, Adam and the Trackers have been drawn into a cryptic cat-and-mouse game by a brilliant and beautiful young woman named Zara who turns out to be working with an older accomplice named Lasko. He has managed to hack into The Vault and steal Adam's portfolio of inventions and threatens to release his designs to the public unless Adam can quickly crack a code that'll provide Lasko with backdoor access to all of the world's banks. This is an ingenious and entertaining mystery on several levels, and readers are given successive passwords to a Trackers website as the story unfolds. The site contains short videos (transcripts of which are also provided in an appendix) that help readers visualize story elements and solve the mystery, making this an excellent choice for reluctant readers.—Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI