‘The Unknowns’ a math mystery

  Here’s one thing to know if you ever come to visit Adjacent. Wait — forget that. No one with half a brain has ever visited; no one with a quarter of a brain, or a single brain cell, has ever visited. But if you did, like on a field trip to see what a trailer park full of freaks next to a nuclear plant looks like, then you should take the late-afternoon ferry. Seriously, you don’t want to be here when it’s 120 degrees and dusty and there’s a billion flies and plastic water bottles from Trashmore all over the place.
  Not much happens in Adjacent, the dusty little setting of Benedict Carey’s “The Unknowns.” That is until some of the townsfolk go missing. First was Mickey Romo. Then Mrs. Quartez. While Adjacent is abuzz about the disappearances, not much is being done. Soon, Mrs. Clark, math tutor to some of the local kids, vanishes as well. When two of her students, Lady Di and Tom Jones, go to her trailer to look for her, they discover clues she left behind. These aren’t simple clues though. Mrs. Clark left behind a series of math puzzles to help the kids uncover just what exactly is going on in Adjacent.
  Lady Di and Tom put together a crew of other school outcasts to help them solve the puzzles and rescue Mrs. Clark. They’ll find themselves up to their ears in danger though as the clues lead them all over Adjacent, through hidden tunnels and into Folsom Energy Plant, where they uncover a sinister plot against their town.
  “The Unknowns” is a fun little mystery aimed at middle-grade readers (though adults might enjoy it just as much). The author’s goal was to ignite a love of math in young readers, and in his book he’s found an exciting way to interest kids in a subject that can sometime be bewildering, even for grown-ups.
  “The Unknowns” is a great way to keep kids reading through the summer, a book that not only fosters interest in words, but hopefully numbers as well.