Other Available Formats
Overview
"The pleasures of the novel go far beyond the crackling, breathless plot and the satisfaction of watching the puzzle fall into place. The book is shot through with humor, both laugh-out-loud and subtle." --New York Times Book Review
From National Book Award finalist and Printz Award winner Laura Ruby comes an epic alternate history series about three kids who try to solve the greatest mystery of the modern world: a puzzle and treasure hunt laid into the very streets and buildings of New York City.
It was 1798 when the Morningstarr twins arrived in New York with a vision for a magnificent city: towering skyscrapers, dazzling machines, and winding train lines, all running on technology no one had ever seen before.
Fifty-seven years later, the enigmatic architects disappeared, leaving behind for the people of New York the Old York Cipher--a puzzle laid into the shining city they constructed, at the end of which was promised a treasure beyond all imagining. By the present day, however, the puzzle has never been solved, and the greatest mystery of the modern world is little more than a tourist attraction.
Tess and Theo Biedermann and their friend Jaime Cruz live in a Morningstarr apartment--until a real estate developer announces that the city has agreed to sell him the five remaining Morningstarr buildings. Their likely destruction means the end of a dream long held by the people of New York.
And if Tess, Theo, and Jaime want to save their home, they have to prove that the Old York Cipher is real. Which means they have to solve it.
"An epic mission to solve one of the greatest mysteries of their time. I loved this book. It is full of twists and turns" (from the Brightly.com review, which named York: The Shadow Cipher one of the best books of 2017).
This item is Non-Returnable
Details
- ISBN-13: 9780062306937
- ISBN-10: 0062306936
- Publisher: Walden Pond Press
- Publish Date: May 2017
- Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
- Page Count: 496
- Reading Level: Ages 10-13
BookPage® Reviews
Ciphers, clues and codes
Before there was New York with its towering skyscrapers, solarbuses, robot crews and even mechanical snails to clean windows, there was the Old York of wealthy twin geniuses Theresa and Theodore Morningstarr. And before their mysterious disappearance in 1855, the eccentric pair left behind a puzzle that remains unsolved. In award-winning author Laura Ruby’s York, a modern steampunk mystery for tweens, three seventh-graders accept the challenge of the Old York Cipher.
Jewish twins Tess and Theo Biedermann, named after the legendary cipherists, and Cuban-American Jaime Cruz all live in one of the original Morningstarr buildings. When a sleazy real-estate developer buys the property and gives residents 30 days to vacate, the young sleuths decide to solve the cipher to find its treasure and save their homes. Chapters told from their various perspectives reveal each tween’s personality and strengths, from intuitive Tess’ “catastrophisizing” to Theo’s logical mind to artistic Jaime’s fascination with superheroes.
The search for clues takes these clever kids through forgotten parts of the city and into heart-racing adventures. Readers learn more about how codes and ciphers work along with the sleuths, who can’t help but wonder if the cipher is manipulating them. Enthralling details and nonstop action will draw fans to this series opener.
This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
