Mac Slater Hunts the Cool

by Tristan Bancks

Overview

Mac Slater isn’t the coolest kid in school, but he loves to take big risks. And it is one of his biggest—an attempt to jump over forty kids with a flying bicycle—that catches the attention of Tastemakers, a new Internet company looking for trend-spotting correspondents in up-and-coming cities like Mac’s beach front town. But the coolest girl in school is also up for the title of Tastemaker, and Mac has just one week to prove he has what it takes to get the job. Readers will love getting the inside scoop along with Mac on the newest technology and trends!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416985747
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	04/06/2010
Series:	Mac Slater Hunts the Cool
Pages:	203
Product dimensions:	5.82(w) x 8.62(h) x 0.83(d)
Lexile:	690L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Tristan Bancks is an author with a background in acting and filmmaking. He loves the beach, space, New York City, making movies, flying, ice cream, theme parks and mind-blowing inventions. Mac Slater Hunts the Cool was his first book for middle-graders. He lives in Australia.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 6–9—Once a haven for hippies and starving artists, eighth-grader Mac Slater's seaside hometown in Australia has begun to be recognized as one of the world's coolest destinations. After watching Mac crash his latest extreme invention, a flying bike, Coolhunters, a Web-based company looking for young people to post their reports on the hottest new trends, invites him to participate in a contest to become their next correspondent. All he has to do to win is post daily videos of the coolest trends coming out of Kings Bay and attract more online votes than his competition. The gig comes with cash, free stuff, and travel opportunities, including a trip to New York. The problem is, unconventional Mac is not sure he knows what "cool" even means. A geeky outcast at school, he lives in a converted double-decker bus with his street-performer mom. His estranged dad, still living nearby, is a prickly, aging activist and inventor who spends time working on oddball projects like an energy-capturing "lightning farm" when he's not serving time for civil disobedience. Mac's biggest obstacle, though, is his cutthroat classmate Cat DeVrees, a beautiful, calculating fashionista with a huge wardrobe and a goony boyfriend. There's no way she's going to let some loser get between her and the big-time celebrity she feels entitled to. First in a planned series, this novel affirms a truth adolescents need to be reminded of: that true cool comes from within and can't be obtained with a credit card.—Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI

School Library Journal

An Aussie teen turns global coolhunter in a slick, fast-paced story that bookends nicely with Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday (2004). No one is more surprised than Mac Slater when the nerdy underdog child of impoverished hippie parents is tapped by corporate trend-spotters to compete for one of their adolescent Internet correspondent spots. His adversary is none other than sinister fashionista Cat DeVrees, whom Mac has a crush on despite the fact that she backstabs him at every turn. Her weapon is couture while his is invention, and soon it seems that Cat's hemlines are going to win out over Mac's attempts at creating a flying bicycle. But the end is never really in doubt, though what happens next will be covered in an upcoming sequel. Tackling the topic of cool for capricious and increasingly media-savvy teens is inherently risky. While Bancks's diverting portrayal of trend-spotting rings true, its shelf life may be limited due to the subject's inconstant nature. A timely tome for today but not necessarily tomorrow. (Fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews