Horizon

December 15, 2016
Grades 4-7 Four diverse middle-school members of the Brooklyn Science and Technology Killbot team are flying to Japan for the Robot Soccer World Championships when something attacks and crashes their plane, wiping out all but the team members and four other young passengers. Though they had been flying over the Arctic Circle, they mysteriously find themselves in a dense jungle with killer vines and strange animals. Survival will take teamwork and excellent investigative skills. The story itself is familiar: smart children left to fend for themselves in a hostile environment, with plenty of action and carefully parsed clues to keep them searching for a way home. STEM connections are robust, starting with Killbot team members calming one another by calculating the miles of wiring in the plane, or figuring out the physics of an unusual device that lets them defy gravity. This multiplatform series opener is similar to the 39 Clues books and will feature multiple authors and an online game. Try this with fans of 39 Clues and Margaret Peterson Haddix's The Missing series. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This projected seven-book series is getting a big push by the publisher, who is taking best-selling Westerfeld on tour. Jennifer A. Nielsen is already on the hook for book two of this sure-to-be-popular series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)