Brainwashed (Crime Travelers Series #1)

by Paul Aertker

Overview

While sleeping on the roof of his father's hotel, thirteen-year-old Lucas Benes finds a baby alone and learns that the Good Company has restarted its profitable kidnapping business. Brainwashed (Crime Travelers #1) tracks the secret urban adventures of the New Resistance, a network of international teenage spies. Lucas leads a group of friends through the hotspots of Paris-from the catacombs to the Eiffel tower-in an all-out effort to sabotage a brainwashing ceremony that could potentially turn them all into "Good" kids. A squeaky-clean international thriller for kids. A reluctant reader's dream.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940137117
Publisher:	Flying Solo Press, LLC
Publication date:	01/14/2014
Series:	Crime Travelers Series , #1
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	720L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Paul Aertker (ETT Kerr) is an award-winning children's book writer, teacher, and frequent speaker at elementary and middle schools. He began his teaching career in West Africa with the Peace Corps where he helped establish the town's first public library. His first series, Crime Travelers, consistently ranks in the top spot in multiple categories. The series has been optioned for TV and Film. His newest book, Posthumous, won the Indie Book of the Year Bronze medal and won the SCBWI Spark Honor award for excellence in children's publishing. He and his wife live in Colorado and travel with their two children whenever possible. More information at paulaertker.com As a traveler and multilingual teacher, Aertker has clocked nearly half his life outside the US. When he was a teenager, he slept on the streets of London to watch a royal wedding. He took the CIA exam because he wanted to be a spy for the good guys (and not the "Good Company"). Ages 10 and up will love this series' campy flavor. Parents, teachers, and librarians will appreciate the worldwide geography and appropriate language. A reluctant reader's dream. For boys, girls, (and adults who may act like children :). More information at https://www.paulaertker.com/ & https://www.crimetravelers.com/

Table of Contents

The Hotel, the Boat, and the Secret

A Call to Legs

You Can't Always Follow the Rules

Elevator Down

Baby

Bat Cave

The Flying Office

Child Kidnapping

The In-Flight Movie

Curukians

Who's Watching Whom?

The Point of No Return

Master Key, Master Plan

Room Service

The Lucky Office

Curukian Proposal

Duck in the Duct

Green Is Good

A City Crawling with Curukians

Stink

The Tour de Paris

The Last Best Hiding Place

The Empire of Death

Hostile Hostel

A Meeting of the Minds

The Truth Behind the Lie

The Database

Riding on the Metro

Pompidou

A Never-Ending Supply of Curukians

Carnival of the Animals

Notre Dame Is Our Lady?

The Brainwashing Ceremony

Shakespeare in Paris

The River Seine

Carnival

A New Way to Kidnap

Busball

Good Things Happen to Bad People

A Hotel Is a Home

Editorial Reviews

I was looking for a book for my 12 year old daughter who had hit a dry spell with engaging books she was willing to read to the end. A friend recommended this so I bought it. I thought I'd take a peek and see if it might appeal to my daughter before giving it to her. I couldn't put it down.

This book is a rip roaring ride through Paris with a truly likable main character and a cast of supporting characters as colorful as a band of Rhald Dahl characters. It's a page turner packed with cliffhangers that keep the pace brisk.

My daughter caught me reading it obsessively and giggling at Aertker's comic scenes. I told her what I was reading and why and she immediately demanded I hand over "her" book. She slipped into her room and didn't emerge. I peeked in and asked her if she liked it and she told me she LOVED it. I let her stay up late and pried it out of her hands at 11pm. (Then I finished it!).

She read Brainwashed for the next two nights and finished it. She said, and I agreed, that it's the most fun she's had with a book in a loooong time.

I was a 4th grade teacher for many years. This novel has an exciting plot, intriguing characters, and short, snappy chapters that speak to the middle grade reader and keep the pages turning. The hero of this novel, Lucas Benes (pronounced like Tennis) lives in a hotel with an international group of rescued homeless children who are being trained by Lucas's adoptive dad to counter the efforts of a powerful international child trafficking organization posing as a legitimate corporation. The story starts when Lucas finds a baby left at the hotel he lives in and this discovery sends Lucas and friends on a mission that never let's up. It's funny, smart, cleverly plotted and has real heart. I think any child from age 9-14 would love this book (and so would their parents). It's good, clean fun and the author make Paris shimmer with life. Enjoy.

From the Publisher