Genre: Middle Reader Fiction - Fantasy
My Rating: 9/10
I was lucky enough to be working last weekend when the author, Lynne Jonell, came to Inkwood to do a signing for her new book - The Secret of Zoom! Not only was Mrs. Jonell fascinating and entertaining, but she also showed us all the drawings that inspired her other books about Emmy and Ratty (Sunshine State and Battle of the Books - Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat). I hadn't read her newest book, so I picked one up while she was at the store and took it home.
Christina is a young girl who lives alone with her father (a brilliant but boring scientist) in a huge mansion up on a hill. Her mother was 'blown to smithereens' when she was just a baby, and since then, her father has become very protective over Christina. She is kept indoors with just her Nanny and Cook for company, and is only allowed to go outside for an hour a day. Even when she does go outside, she is never allowed to leave her fenced in yard or speak to anyone who may be on the road nearby. But one day, the orphans are out cleaning the side of the road and one of them talks to HER! Taft is the very first child Christina has ever spoken to, and when he tells her that there is a secret passage somewhere in her house, she believes him.
As Christina searches for the hidden passage, she soon finds many more secrets about this strange town and it's even weirder founder/leader - Leo Loompski. It's not long before Christina and Taft discover Zoom - a magical-scientific mineral deposit found in the mountains behind Christina's house in a small town owned and run by the evil Leo Loompski. Could it be that Loompski is somehow forcing the orphans to mine the Zoom? What is it for? And where do all the children disappear to?
Order this from Inkwood Books HERE
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