Pursued

Gr 5–8—Daisha Tandala and Axel Jack have been on the run ever since both of their parents were shot in front of them a year ago. The older Tandala and Jack were physicists who invented the GeoPort, a device that allows users to travel anywhere on Earth in seconds. Dr. Stain is determined to steal and market the GeoPorts. There are a lot of well-worn tropes here: the parents' cryptic last words, a disfigured megalomaniacal billionaire, and cruel Eastern European henchmen. The breathless pace is designed to entice reluctant readers, but it gets bogged down in places by technobabble. Some readers will be uncomfortable with the level of violence and sexual harassment depicted. The children's parents are shot in front of them, and both children inflict brutal beatings on their pursuers. Daisha witnesses Dr. Stain make a series of unwanted advances on her mother, and he later implies that he wants the girl kept alive for his amorous purposes. Another character flirts with the villain, letting him put his hands on her thigh in an attempt to gain his trust. The conclusion takes a sharp veer to the mystical with the confusing and sudden appearance of a Hindu god.