The Metropolitans

by Carol Goodman

Overview

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler meets The Apothecary in this time-bending mystery from bestselling author Carol Goodman!

The day Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, four thirteen-year-olds converge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where an eccentric curator is seeking four uncommonly brave souls to track down the hidden pages of the Kelmsbury Manuscript, an ancient book of Arthurian legends that lies scattered within the museum's collection, and that holds the key to preventing a second attack on American soil.  

When Madge, Joe, Kiku, and Walt agree to help, they have no idea that the Kelmsbury is already working its magic on them. But they begin to develop extraordinary powers and experience the feelings of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, and Lancelot: courage, friendship, love...and betrayal.  Are they playing out a legend that's already been lived, over and over, across the ages?  Or can the Metropolitans forge their own story?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101997673
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Lexile:	840L (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Carol Goodman is the author of over a dozen novels for adults, including the bestseller The Lake of Dead Languages, and the Blythewood trilogy for teens. Her works has appeared in journals such as The Greensboro Review, Literal Latte, Midwest Quarterly, New York Quarterly, and Other Voices. After graduating from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin, she taught Latin for several years in Austin, Texas. She then received an MFA in fiction from the New School University, where she now teaches writing. She has been nominated for the IMPAC award twice, the Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award, and the Nero Wolfe Award, and was awarded the 2003 Hammett Prize. Her novels have been translated into ten languages. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. Visit her at carolgoodman.com and @C_Goodmania.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Metropolitans:

"[An] adventure worthy of Indiana Jones.... A strong female protagonist, a great supporting cast, a timeless myth, and the undercurrent of World War II combine for an engaging and memorable tale."—School Library Journal

"A finely constructed and quite often thrilling adventure story for middle-grade readers, with a historical setting and the added twist of medieval magic."—Booklist

"The overarching message is one of hope—in order to defeat foes and overcome insecurities, the children must learn to trust each other and be willing to sacrifice for the greater good."—Publishers Weekly

"Children will love the action, mystery, and influences of magic and legends."—School Library Connections

"A strong female protagonist, a great supporting cast, a timeless myth, and the undercurrent of World War II combine for an engaging and memorable tale."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

2016-11-16
What happens when a small group of misfits collide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the day Pearl Harbor is attacked? They stumble haphazardly into an Arthurian mystery that has Nazi ties, and it is somehow up to them to save New York from a Nazi terrorist attack, of course.The four kids are a young white orphan, Madge; Kiku, daughter of a Japanese museum curator; Joe, a Mohawk boarding school runaway; and Walt, a white Jewish boy sent to New York from Germany to escape the concentration camps. These four come together to solve a mystery to decode the stolen Kelmsbury, an ancient manuscript. The new friends have had a shared dream of a mysterious man in a trench coat, and they suspect it signals a magical link that ties them to the King Arthur legend. There is a lot going on in this far-fetched tale that reads like an adolescent version of The DaVinci Code, and credulity needs to stretch to accommodate it, as the author leaves it to this arbitrary bunch to run around the Met in search of clues amid an underworld of adult spies during wartime. Contemporary young readers may wish for a primer to sort through the inundation of historical references, be it to the World War II era or ancient Britain. As the text also name-checks Boris Karloff, Joan Fontaine, and the Queen of Sheba, among others, with a little dash of Mohawk language tossed in, readers will need to be either very flexible or ready to look up what they don't know. This historical hodgepodge begs the question, what is this book really about? (Historical adventure. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews