Octagon Valley

This new series from #1 New York Times best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz is “The Mysterious Benedict Society” for reluctant readers, chockful of humor, adventure and mischief, and set at an exclusive, secluded, high-tech institute everyone wants to get into. A handful of sixth-graders have been chosen to attend an exclusive weekend at the Octagon Valley Institute, the mysterious, high-tech lab of the uber famous multimillionaire, genius, recluse Onassander Octagon. What will they do there? No one is telling. Which just makes everyone want to get in. Edwin Edgefield has high hopes for the weekend, hopes he'll meet other kids like him, kids who will accept him even though he's got a photographic memory, genius level math skills and some very specific personality quirks. But when he meets the other kids, he starts to wonder if they're all in the right place. There's amateur rapper Kimmy, who's obsessed with TikTok, violin-player Julie, who has zero social skills, and surfer dude Dilip, who's well, a surfer dude. And then, strange things start to happen. Things that involve an escape room challenge, a zero-gravity chamber, a river full of piranhas and... some ninjas? Turns out the Octagon Valley is all about using teamwork to make the dream work, and these normally isolated kids might not all survive. But those who do will be treated to the greatest prize, and the biggest surprise, of their lives, a chance to be truly EXTRAordinary.

In the second book in Melissa de la Cruz's wacky new middle grade adventure series, the Octos find themselves on a mission to the moon. Which might not be made out of cheese after all. After discovering in book one that they had every reason to feel a little bit different than their peers, Edwin Edgefield and the rest of his alien-on-earth crew are primed and ready to learn all they can about their home planet. Unfortunately, that planet has been destroyed, and the one person who can help them find out where they came from-Maureen (yuck) has no intention of helping. In fact, she has just taken off in a rocket ship bound for the moon, where the enemy Yaks awaits with a new version of her planet-destroying machine, this time aimed at earth. It will take every bit of Edwin, Julie, Kimmy and Dilip's super abilities-both mental and physical-to stop Maureen this time. Can they pass through the gauntlet of tests Maureen has set for them and infiltrate the Yaks' secret moon base before the bad guys can power up their earth-blaster, or will Maureen and the Yaks succeed in their vengeful mission? Grab a moon pie and cuddle up with this unputdownable sequel to the book PW called "energetic" "fast-paced" and "imaginative!"