I,Q (I,Q The Series) - Softcover

Smith, Roland

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1585363251 ISBN 13: 9781585363254

Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press, 2008

Synopsis

Thirteen-year-old Quest (Q) isn't sure he's ready for a new family. For a long time it's just been him and his mom, Blaze. But everything changes when Blaze falls in love with Roger and they start a new rock band called Match. Now they're married, have a hit record, and Match is going out on a year-long driving tour across the country. Q, along with new stepsister Angela, will take a year off from school and travel with the band. For now, home will be a luxury motor coach and homework will be a Web site diary of their travels. Perfect-Q can practice his magic tricks and Angela can read her spy novels. What can go wrong? As Q and Angela settle into their new life and new relationship as siblings, they start to notice that certain coincidences don't seem coincidental. For example, how does a band roadie named Boone find them in the middle of a desert where their coach just happens to break down? Why does a man from their parents' wedding keep showing up in the same cities they stop at? When they reach Philadelphia, Q and Angela realize this tour is definitely not the trip their parents had planned and that the "City of Brotherly Love" is full of mysteries and secrets that could threaten their new life together. In addition to his action adventure books, Roland is the author of many award-winning books for children including Journey of the Red Wolf; The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe; and Thunder Cave, which was a 1996 Notable Children's Trade Book in the field of Social Studies. His books with Sleeping Bear Press include W is for Waves: An Ocean Alphabet; Z is for Zookeeper: A Zoo Alphabet; and N is for our Nation's Capital: A Washington, DC Alphabet. Roland lives near Portland, Oregon.

About this title

About the Author:

Roland Smith grew up in Oregon and live on a small farm south of Portland. Roland is the author of many award-winning books for children including Thunder Cave, Sasquatch, Jaguar, Zach's Lie, and The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe, which won the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Award. Roland and his wife Marie also collaborated on B is for Beaver: An Oregon Alphabet, published in 2003.

Review:

Quest knows that his life is going change when his mother Blaze marries Roger Tucker. How can it not. After all, he will have a step-sister, and he and his new family are going to travel around the country so that Blaze and Roger can perform in their band. The band, Match, is all the rage, and the new blended family are going to be in the limelight. What he does not expect is that he is also going to be catapulted into the world of spies, lies, and subterfuge.

The tour begins right after the wedding, and all goes well at first as the new family begins their drive across the country in the huge tour coach that Roger and Blaze's personal manager arranged for them. Then the coach breaks down and a weathered old roadie called Boone turns up. Boone fixes the coach, and he joins the family on their journey east.

Soon after they arrive in Philadelphia things start to unravel. Roger and Blaze are busy appearing on shows and are not around much. Q and his new step-sister Angela discover that Boone is not just a roadie and that Angela's mother (whom everyone thought was dead) is alive. Not only that, but a group of Israeli Mossad agents appear to be after her, and they are hoping to get to her using Angela as bait.

With Boone's spy buddies to help them, Angela and Q try to unravel the past, and at the same time they try to stay ahead of their enemies.

In this thrilling first title in the I,Q series Roland Smith - who wrote Elephant Run - tells an exciting story that is packed with surprises and colorful characters. Readers who think that it would be easy to be a spy will discover how wrong they were. They will explore a grey world where no one really knows what is going on, and where the righteous do not always win.

Roland Smith paces the story beautifully, and he leaves his readers in a place that will have them eager to find out what happens next. --Through the Looking Glass, December 2009

About this edition

• Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1585363251
• ISBN 13: 9781585363254
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312