Project Alpha

June 8, 2015
With this fast-paced first installment of the Voyagers series, MacHale helps kick off a multiplatform, multi-author project à la the 39 Clues; five subsequent books from Robin Wasserman, Patrick Carman, Kekla Magoon, Jeanne DuPrau, and Wendy Mass will follow, published two months apart. Eight 12-year-olds from around the world have been chosen to compete for four spots in Project Alpha, a deep-space mission to secure a new power source for Earth. (Due to the physical stresses of the trip, no one older than 12 can safely make the journey.) As the competitors face off against (holographic) dinosaurs and try their hands at video-game-like flight simulators, their true natures slowly surface. Once the four winners are chosen, the story skips over the subsequent months of training to the team’s first mission, giving readers a taste of the challenges they will face. While the characters don’t get much fleshing out in this first installment, their relationships, both competitive and connective, provide entertaining banter and conflicts. A slew of twists should keep readers looking forward to volume two. Ages 8–12.

June 15, 2015
This series opener has the potential to turn its young readers positively cynical. The titular Project Alpha is designed to solve an energy crisis. The members of the project travel in enormous fleets of SUVs and Humvees and attack helicopters. The kids competing to join the project have to face holographic dinosaurs and gorillas. This seems like a huge waste of power at a time when there are government-mandated blackouts every night to save energy-even at Disney World. And as in any good thriller, the government turns out to be keeping deep secrets. When the man behind the project says, "There is no danger whatsoever," it sounds more than a little ominous. MacHale has thrown in every monster and gadget an adventure fan could want, including spaceships and robots with lasers. But the plot twists are so familiar the action seems a little generic. The characters even have stock soap-opera names like Dash Conroy and Carly Diamond. A robot who speaks in 1980s catchphrases adds some humor ("We will party like it is 1999!"), but it's funny mostly because none of the kids get his references, which means that many in the book's intended audience will probably be likewise clueless. The story is thrilling but rarely surprising. This book may teach readers to distrust the government, but the real fear is that they'll put the novel down halfway through out of boredom. (Science fiction. 8-12)

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October 1, 2015

Gr 4-6-In the very near future, Earth's fossil fuel supply is almost exhausted. Even mandatory daily eight-hour blackouts can only postpone the final catastrophe for a few years. The ultra-secret Project Alpha has identified an extraterrestrial substance that could provide unlimited energy, but the components lie far out in space. No conventional spaceship could bring back the mysterious Source in time to save the planet, but the highly classified Gamma Speed process can shorten the trek to a single year. However, no one over the age of 14 can withstand the metabolic pressure that the Gamma process entails, so the scientists conduct a worldwide search for an elite crew of 12-year-old astronauts. Dash Conroy desperately wants to be one of the squad, not only for the adventure but also for the 10 million dollar prize awarded to each member. But he is joining seven other semifinalists for the final testing at Alpha headquarters, and only four of them can ultimately be chosen. As Dash and his cohorts compete in physical contests, team exercises, and virtual reality combat, they begin to suspect that the Alpha project may not be quite what it appears on the surface. Moreover, there is a sinister counterpart to the Alpha group-and the Omega project has plans of its own for the vital Source. As the first entry in the projected six-book series, this title focuses on Dash and the Alpha team as they train for their mission and experience their first interplanetary adventure on the jungle planet J-16, home to carnivorous alien beasts; giant, dinosaurlike Raptagons; and the first component of the Source. Each upcoming volume will be written by a different author, in the manner of Scholastic's "Infinity Ring" series, and will follow both the Alpha and Omega teams in their dangerous race across the cosmos to complete the Source. Inserted "Visual Analysis" cards for use with the series' website will probably disappear quickly from library copies, but the online activities can be completed without them. VERDICT Quick action, snappy dialogue, and frequent touches of humor will appeal to middle grade science fiction fans.-Elaine E. Knight, formerly at Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
Grades 4-7 Four boys and four girls, all 12 years old, enter a contest to stop Earth's growing energy crisis in this exciting and action-packed sf thriller, the first of a six-book multiplatform series written by six different, well-known authors. Only four kids will be chosen to fly into space to find the Source, a material that contains enough energy to keep Earth from going permanently dark. The competitors include a wheelchair-bound girl and others from diverse races, cultures, and economic backgrounds. They're all supersmart, highly competitive, and not necessarily likable. Dash Conroy is an exception and the only character to have his own chapter-length backstory. Perhaps not surprisingly, they have all been misled about their mission, including the fact that they won't be able to assemble the Source until they have retrieved six elements from six different planets (conveniently, one for each book in the series). Readers are encouraged to go online after cracking the codes in the books along with the kids as they face dangerous obstacles in this fun, Jurassic Parklike space adventure.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A page-long promotional plan and an author roster that includes Robin Wasserman, Patrick Carman, and Kekla Magoon reveals 39 Clueslike ambition. This could be ubiquitous, so acquire accordingly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)