Four friends follow coded postcards in their quest to save the world. Check out Star of Stone, book 1 in the Century Quartet.
Title: Star of Stone
Authors: P.D. Baccalario
Ages: 10+
Rating:
A new mystery brings friends Harvey from New York, Sheng from Shanghai, Elettra from Rome, and Mistral from Paris together in the Big Apple, along with their adult friend Ermete. But this mystery stems from the last. In book one, The Ring of Fire, the four kids were given a briefcase by a man named Alfred Van Der Berger, who was murdered shortly after. Inside they found four tos tops that they risked their lives to protect.
Courtesy of Random House
The Postcards
In Star of Stone, the kids learn about Alfred Van Der Berger’s life back in New York, and follow a series of postcards that he wrote, each containing a numerical code. The postcards take them all around NYC in search of something called the Star of Stone. But they’re being hunted by a grotesque night club owner and his band of beautiful, violent women.
The End of the World
Meanwhile, Harvey’s dad, an oceanographer, has learned about a drastic rise in the ocean’s temperatures—a rise that could cause the end of the world.
The Bottom Line
Century Quartet #2: Star of Stone is much more engaging than the first book, The Ring of Fire. Not only do you learn about interesting historical facts, but you get a good sense of New York City. The characters are more developed and the potential for the end of the world is much more intense. We can only imagine what will happen in books three and four.
