Description

In this first volume in the series, "eight singular middle schoolers from across America find belonging in a series of escape room-type challenges. Each sixth grader assumes that winning a coveted spot to spend three days at the Octagon Valley Institute led by Willy Wonka-esque Onasander Octagon--an ethnically ambiguous multiracial tech genius--means winning a 'golden ticket to the rest of your life.' However, they soon realize that instead of an academic conference, they will each have to utilize their particular skills to find eight puzzle pieces in a high-stakes scavenger hunt"--Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2023.

Publisher Marketing:
This new series from #1 New York Times best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz is The Mysterious Benedict Society for reluctant readers, chockful of humor, adventure and mischief, and set at an exclusive, secluded, high-tech institute everyone wants to get into.

You only get in if you're EXTRAordinary....

After passing an intense exam, Edwin Edgefield becomes one of the lucky few to attend an exclusive weekend at the mysterious high-tech institute of the uber-famous-ultrabazillionaire-genius-recluse Onasander Octagon. Edwin hopes he'll meet other kids like him--kids who will accept him even though he's got a photographic memory, genius-level math skills, and some very specific personality quirks. But when he meets the other misfits (um, students), he starts to wonder if they're all in the right place. There's amateur rapper Li'l Kimmy, violin prodigy Julie, video game-obsessed Anton, teacher's pet Ting-Ting, mean girl Maureen, and surfer dude Dilip. And we're not even going to talk about Harold.

Are you sitting down? Because this is when things get really weird. Octagon's weekend events include an escape-room challenge, a zero-gravity chamber, a river full of piranhas, and . . . some ninjas?

Surviving Octagon Valley may require these outcasts to embrace their inner weird and become greater together than they ever could separately. Those who rise to the wacky occasion will be treated to the biggest, most spectacular surprise of their lives--a chance to be truly EXTRAordinary!