Century #2: Star of Stone - Hardcover

Baccalario, Pierdomenico

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375858962 ISBN 13: 9780375858963

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2010

Synopsis

In the second installment of the Century Quartet, Italian author P. D. Baccalario continues the mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve.

Four kids. A wooden top. And four postcards with secret instructions.

New York City, March 15
Another mysterious artifact reunites Harvey from New York, Elettra from Rome, Mistral from Paris, and Sheng from Shanghai in their attempt to save the world. When they meet people who knew Alfred Van Der Berger, the murdered professor who sent them on their quest in Rome, they realize that the challenge is far from over. And when they discover a series of four postcards written in code years ago by the professor himself, their destiny becomes even clearer.

The cards send the kids all over New York City, through old libraries and abandoned tunnels, in search of the Star of Stone, an ancient object fundamentally connected to the earth. But a new set of villains, predators of Manhattan nightlife, will do anything to stop them....

About this title

About the Author

Pierdomenico Baccalario was born in Acqui Terme, a beautiful little town in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. He grew up in the middle of the woods with his three dogs and his black bicycle.

He started writing in high school. When lessons got particularly boring, he’d pretend he was taking notes, but he was actually coming up with stories. He also met a group of friends who were crazy about role-playing games, and with them he invented and explored dozens of fantastic worlds.

He studied law at university but kept writing and began publishing novels. After he graduated, he also worked with museums and cultural projects, trying to make dusty old objects tell interesting stories. He began to travel and change horizons: Celle Ligure, Pisa, Rome, Verona...

He loves seeing new places and discovering new lifestyles, although, in the end, he always returns to the comfort of familiar ones.

From AudioFile

This second book in the Century Quartet reunites four children from four cities--Harvey from New York City, Mistral from Paris, Sheng from Shanghai, and Elettra from Rome--in New York on their quest to find the Star of Stone. Carrington MacDuffie gives the four children distinctive, youthful voices with subtle accents that reflect their native lands. Her timing is perfect for conveying tension and a sense of danger and for building suspense as the children decipher four postcards written in numeric code, which give them instructions as they move through the city while being pursued by a host of villains. Overall, MacDuffie's performance is just right for this fast-paced mystery. C.R.A. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0375858962
• ISBN 13: 9780375858963
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304