William Wenton and the Impossible Puzzle

Gr 4–6—This fast-paced, engaging novel grabs readers' attention right from the get-go with a description of William's grandfather's disappearance down a dark tunnel. William, hidden with his family in secrecy in Norway under an assumed name, breaks codes in his bedroom, hoping his parents will not find him (code breaking is the entire reason for the family's hidden identities). Still, William feels a call, a vibration, inside him to solve and understand puzzles. Oslo's History of Science Museum hosts a special exhibit, The Impossible Puzzle, and William's class takes a field trip to the museum on the last day of the exhibit. Of course, William slips away from his class to see the puzzle. What happens next unfolds just like one of William's broken codes, bit by bit, piece by piece. With secret societies, powerful science, and advanced technologies at every turn, William does not know whom to trust, only that he must keep solving each clue in the hopes of saving his grandfather and maybe the world.