Pursued (Volume 1) (Secrets of the X-Point) - Hardcover

Urey, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807566845 ISBN 13: 9780807566848

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 2017

Synopsis

Axel Jack and Daisha Tandala are two thirteen-year-old friends running from a billionaire madman who killed their scientist parents and now wants what the kids have―a GeoPort (Geographical Transportation System.) The GeoPort, invented by their parents, has the ability to transport a person to any place on Earth within seconds. Knowing the power they had created, their parents' dying wish was for the kids to destroy the GeoPort before it lands in the wrong hands. But when the teens are separated by their pursuers, they must make a life or death attempt to find each other and get the GeoPort to a mysterious Indian Temple where the chase becomes more than just a high-tech game of hide-and-seek, but a war for control of everything―money, culture, politics, and power.

About this title

About the Author

Gary Urey is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and spent several years as an actor, script reader, and theater reviewer. He works as a Youth Market Director for the American Heart Association by day. Gary lives in Maine.

From School Library Journal

Gr 5–8—Daisha Tandala and Axel Jack have been on the run ever since both of their parents were shot in front of them a year ago. The older Tandala and Jack were physicists who invented the GeoPort, a device that allows users to travel anywhere on Earth in seconds. Dr. Stain is determined to steal and market the GeoPorts. There are a lot of well-worn tropes here: the parents' cryptic last words, a disfigured megalomaniacal billionaire, and cruel Eastern European henchmen. The breathless pace is designed to entice reluctant readers, but it gets bogged down in places by technobabble. Some readers will be uncomfortable with the level of violence and sexual harassment depicted. The children's parents are shot in front of them, and both children inflict brutal beatings on their pursuers. Daisha witnesses Dr. Stain make a series of unwanted advances on her mother, and he later implies that he wants the girl kept alive for his amorous purposes. Another character flirts with the villain, letting him put his hands on her thigh in an attempt to gain his trust. The conclusion takes a sharp veer to the mystical with the confusing and sudden appearance of a Hindu god.VERDICTDespite the book's reluctant reader appeal, narrative flaws and gratuitous violence make it a poor choice.—Rachel Anne Mencke, St. Matthew's Parish School, Pacific Palisades, CA

About this edition

• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0807566845
• ISBN 13: 9780807566848
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288