Cracking the code isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in this scavenger hunt adventure from a Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author.

Chester Keene takes great comfort in his routines. Afterschool Monday to Thursday is bowling, and Friday, the best of days, is laser tag! But besides Friday laser tag, Chester has one other very special thinghe gets secret spy messages from his dad, who must be on covert government assignments, which is why Chester has never met him.

Then one day at lunch, Chesters classmate, Skye, approaches him with a clue. Theyve been tasked with a complex puzzle-solving mission. Chester takes their assignments very seriously, but Skye treats it like a big game. Skye proves to be a useful partner and good company, even if her haphazard, free-wheeling ways are disruptive to Chesters carefully curated schedule.

As Chester and Skye get closer to their final clue, they discover the key to their spy assignment: they have to stop a heist! But cracking this code may mean finding out things are not always what they seem.

Kekla Magoon is the author of many novels and nonfiction books for young readers, includingThe Season of Styx Malone,The Rock and the River,How It Went Down,and theRobyn Hoodlum Adventureseries.She hasreceived the Margaret A. Edwards Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the John SteptoeNew Talent Award, four Coretta Scott King Honors, the Walter Award Honor, an NAACP Image Award, and been long listed forthe National Book Award.Keklaconducts school and library visits nationwide and serves on the Writers Council for the National Writing Project. Kekla holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she now serves on faculty.Visit her online atkeklamagoon.com and on Facebook and Twitter (keklamagoon).

• Publisher:Wendy Lamb Books (July 5, 2022)
• Language:English
• Hardcover:304 pages
• ISBN-10:1524715999
• ISBN-13:9781524715991
• Reading age:8 – 12 years
• Grade level:3 – 7
• Item Weight:14.4 ounces
• Dimensions:5.81 x 1.2 x 8.56 inches