Dangerous
Gr 7 Up—Her middle name may be Danger, but Maisie "Danger" Brown doesn't seem a likely action heroine. She is a homeschooled half-Latina science geek with a special love for physics and astronomy, and she has an artificial arm. When she wins a contest to go to astronaut camp with other teens, her life changes dramatically. Her team gets an opportunity to go up in a space elevator, and she and four others, including Wilder, the boy she's crushing on, are exposed to alien artifacts or "tokens," which enter their bodies and give them superpowers. Maisie becomes a tech whiz, one teen becomes superstrong and beastlike, another is able to shoot objects from her fingers, one teammate gains the ability to grow armor and weaponry from his body, and Wilder becomes the Thinker, a mastermind who can direct them all on a mission envisioned by the aliens who created the tokens. But what is the group's ultimate purpose? Will they survive the alien mission? And will they be able to escape the grasp of the humans competing to exploit them and the alien technology, including Wilder's own unscrupulous father? This fast-paced science fiction novel with echoes of the "Fantastic Four" comics doesn't let up for a moment. Maisie is a strong, smart heroine with a wry sense of humor, and readers will be rooting for her to save the world. A must-read for fans of superhero adventures.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ