By T.P. Jagger
Amazon rating: 5/5 (one review as of 1/7/22, grades 3-7
Good Reads: 3.4/5
Common Sense Media: Not reviewed
4Rbooks: 4/6, grades 4-7
306 pages
Synopsis:
Gina, Elena, Edgar, and Kevin are best friends. Together they make up the GEEKs. Each has special interests and talents. Gina is a journalist who is great at noticing details and finding facts. Elena is athletic and a scientist. Edgar works on his family farm and loves acting. Kevin is a leader and organizer. The children live in Elmwood, New Hampshire, a town famous for the Van Houten game making family and its toy factory.
Unfortunately, Elmwood is a small town in decline. The downtown isn’t what it once was, the amusement park closed, and everyone has learned that the factory is closing, too. The GEEK’s families are in danger of losing their jobs, moving away, and splitting the friends apart.
The GEEKs learn a secret. Mrs. Van Houten has hidden away a treasure in the town. There are clues throughout the city, one leading to the next, until the fortune is found. Of course, the clues aren’t simple, a famous game maker devised the quest. The GEEKs must work together to solve the clues, find the treasure, and save their town.
Parental Guidance: mild-medium
There are scenes with the children in danger: locked in a mausoleum,
threatened with a sword, chased by a man in a car.
To accomplish their goal of tracking down the answers to the clues, the
GEEKS trespass into a house, break into a theater, and cut a chain link fence to enter an amusement park.
The children lie to their parents several times to avoid sharing the
secret of their adventure.
While grounded, Elena disobeys her parents to sneak out of the house.
The villain has a gambling problem which has led to someone
threatening him.
Recommendation:
Mr. Lemoncello meets the Book Scavenger who introduces them to National Treasure would be a good way to describe this book. This is a brand-new novel from a first-time author, just released in January 2022. It’s a fun adventure to read, written in first person by Gina. Children should enjoy trying to figure out the clues with the GEEKs, and there is a lot of incidental knowledge and information they gather along the way, in particular from the former town librarian, a WWII survivor from France, and a retired MIT grad with a love of astronomy.
The four characters have a special friendship with relatable ups and downs in their relationship, even if none of them are typical children or form a typical group. The plot moves at a good pace and should hold most upper elementary or early middle school children’s interests until the end. The only complaint I have with the book is the number of times the GEEKs disobey their parents and break the law to achieve their goal. Maybe good for the plot line, but definitely not role models.
The end of the book hints that there are more GEEK adventures coming in the future.
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