Synopses & Reviews
In The Lost Tribes, five friends could never imagine their ordinary parents are scientists on a secret mission. When their parents go missing, they are forced into unfathomable circumstances and learn of a history that's best left unknown. Now they must race against time in the search for tribal artifacts that are thousands of years old. Artifacts that hold the fate of the universe in the balance. But unbeknownst to them, they are catalysts in an ancient score that must be settled. The Lost Tribes is a challenge from beginning to end. As the chaos unfolds so do opportunities to solve codes and figure out where the characters will end up next (and the illustration and design give the reader a visual unfolding as well). Written by a former engineer, this book provides a sturdy and accurate science and history foundation, where readers will surely become participants in the facts, fun, and adventure.
Synopsis
Five friends are in a race against time in this action-adventure story involving ancient tribal artifacts that hold the fate of the universe in the balance. None of these trailblazers imagined their ordinary parents as scientists on a secret mission. But when their parents go missing, they are forced into unfathomable circumstances and learn of a history that is best left unknown, for they are catalysts in an ancient score that must be settled. As the chaos unfolds, opportunities arise that involve cracking codes and anticipating their next moves. This book unfolds sturdy, accurate scientific facts and history knowledge where readers will surely become participants.
About the Author
Patrick Arrasmith has illustrated for both large and small publishers like - Greenwillow Books, Macmillan, Night Shade Books, Oxford University Press, Parachute Press, Penguin Books, Random House, Scholastic, Subterranean Press, Tor, Viking Press. Most, if not all, of his work is done in the medium of scratchboard. Scratchboard is a thin layer of white clay, machine-applied to a base of illustration board. The clay is coated with black ink. A blade not unlike a scalpel is used to scratch off lines of the black ink, revealing the white surface below. All color in the illustration is applied on a computer. You only have to take a look at the cover and interior art of The Lost Tribes to see the painstaking work and time put into each carving. C. Taylor-Butler (Christine Taylor-Butler), an MIT trained Civil Engineer, is the author of more than 70 books for children, including Sacred Mountain: Everest. She has won the Best Children's Book of the Year Award and a host of other awards, all while writing her first fiction novel for children, The Lost Tribes. Her short stories and essays have appeared in magazines and journals including the Horn Book Review, and Scholastic's Read and Rise Literacy Guide for Parents, to name a few. In addition to her writing activities, she chairs MIT's Regional Educational Council and serves on the Missouri Judicial Performance Committee. When not conducting various science experiments for many of her books: how to make solid objects float when they shouldn't, creating invisible force fields with magnets, and making electricity from fruits and vegetables (bringing the love of science to classrooms everywhere), the author has traveled to remote places, such as the Tongas National Forest in Alaska, to scout unusual locations for her debut science fiction/adventure novel, The Lost Tribes. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri where she is responsible for the care and feeding of a spouse, college kids, cats, fish and a very needy 104-year-old historic house.