STAR Academy: Dark Secrets

By Edward Kay

A charming, funny middle-grade novel that combines action, adventure, science, and a big dose of satire from a talented voice in children's literature.

It takes a lot to get four kid geniuses together, even when they're all alumni of the now-shuttered Superior Thinking and Advanced Research Academy. Eleven-year-old leader-of-the-pack, Amanda Forsythe, needs to escape the cluthes of her manicacally entrepreneurial father, determined as he is to captialize on Amanda's fame for outsmarting a pair of aliens posing as teachers at the Academy. And Derek, Evelyn, and Sanjay are separately pursuing their own research projects in different schools around the world, desperate to continue the technological advances they began at the STAR Academy. Only the world's richest man could bring them all together--and that's exactly what George Snootman offers to do. But can they really trust the father of Eugenia, their nemesis at the STAR Academy? Probably not--but his offer is just too tempting. Besides, Amanda is pretty confident she and her friends can outfox him, even if he does seem as ruthlessly determined as the aliens before him to misuse their work
for his own means....


From the Trade Paperback edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307368157

Reviews for STAR Academy

[mountie9_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Good Stuff Geeky adventure for the middle school reader good for boys or girls Strong and intelligent main characters Liked the development of Eugenia's characters Nice morals about forgiveness thrown in without being obvious which kids totally pick up on by the way -- they don't like to be preached too - trust me I'm a Mom Good fast paced story with a few twists that you don't see coming Kids save the day and are smarter than the adults -- which obviously kids love and believe to be true -- that's why my kids think anyway LOL! I liked that in this second story some of the adult characters were a little less bumbling and admitted their mistakes Written by a Canadian Author and doesn't depress the crap out of the reader (Yes I know I have issues here - Children Canadian Authors are so much cooler than Cdn Literary Fiction Authors) Love the humour as much of it will be appreciated by both young and old readers Looking forward to reading more by the author Totally got Jake (My 10yr old son) to read them, by telling him that the author is the co-creator of one of his favorite shows, Jimmy Two Shoes -- even-though main character is a girl he wants to read!The Not So Good Stuff While good for kids and those who haven't read the first book in the series, I was a little bit irritated with some of the repetition about what happened in the first book Some of humour might go over the head of the average middle school readerFavorite Quotes/Passages"That was not something Amanda needed to be told. So far, all of Eugenia's surprises had been about as pleasant as finding a scorpion in the toe of your shoe.""Because its true. We adults do owe the greatest reverance to children. For without children, what future is there? I think about that every hour of every day.""Evolutionarily speaking, you're a squirrel with an OCA1A gene mutation-better known as an albino. Instead of dull grey or black fur, you have beautiful white fur. Just imagine how wondefully that nice white fur will stand out to predators in the green and grey of the forest. You might as well be wearing a big red sign saying 'Eat me!" "Who Should/Shouldn't Read Perfect for the geeky (THIS IS NOT AN INSULT BUT A COMPLIMENT) middle school reader Don't necessarily have to read the first book in the series to enjoy, but would recommend it as it was quite good too Not for the more reluctant reader4 Dewey'sI received this from Doubleday Canada in exchange for an honest review