Writer, Teacher, Speaker
ELIOT SCHREFER
"MOVING, FASCINATING AND EYE-OPENING."
-Dr. Jane Goodall on Rescued
Fatal Glitch
Black Mirror meets Goosebumps in this fast-paced middle-grade horror series by New York Times-bestselling authors Erin Entrada Kelly and Eliot Schrefer featuring tales of technology gone wrong.
Eleven-year-old Sofia Mendoza is a gamer, not a camper. She should be at home building landscapes and fighting monsters in Sandbox, not deep in the forest with six other kids, who might as well be playing her favorite game in tutorial mode.
Even worse, there's something off about this summer camp. There are creepy, mechanical vultures, cloaked NPC figures, and the only adult is Monarch, a grim woman in combat boots.
And then the game of elimination begins.
Sofia may be caught in the clutches of Camp Forestjaw, but she'll do anything to survive. Anything. The problem is, in Forestjaw, everything you've ever done—no matter how long ago—comes back to you . . .
In this standalone installment, AI has infiltrated the newest toy craze—a stuffed animal with spooky capabilities and more sinister intentions.
Lewis's big hope for his first day at a new school is to make a friend. He never expected that friend to wind up being a hyper-intelligent cuddly panda bear. A gift from his dad, his Panda Mo Nium is an exclusive kids-only AI toy and communication device with big ideas of his own. After other students at his school get their own robot pandas, Lewis suddenly has a friend group. When Mo begins asking Lewis to perform risky and bloody tasks, Lewis goes along despite his nerves…until the line between cute and creepy blurs and he senses evil intentions behind his AI friend's glowing eyes.
What does this robot panda really want from him and the other kids? The truth might be more frightening than Lewis ever imagined.
"Readers searching for redemption will not find it here; the complications of Sofia’s abrasive personality and serially selfish decision-making build through a fast-paced, tightly written, high-action tale. Arroyo’s well-timed grayscale illustrations add depth, and Sandbox’s similarity to Roblox will make this creepy, witty techno-horror series opener a popular pick among kids... An immensely thrilling story starring a disturbingly devious protagonist."
- Kirkus
"Striving readers and gamers will love the cutthroat action, gaming vocabulary, and solving the mystery of why campers are at Forestjaw."
- School Library Journal
"a brisk, unnerving tale that blends technological horror with a cautionary fable"
- Publishers Weekly
"Fans of The Hunger Games series, Minecraft, and fast-paced terror will find this
story appealing, as the other kids face various obstacles and band together to prevent ranking
each other. Readers will eagerly await the second installment, which is soon to be released."
- Booklist
PRAISE:
dazzling, big-hearted... as riveting as the action is, it's the nuanced portraits of the characters, human and ape, that make the story so affecting.
New York Times Editors' Choice review of Endangered
"One of the most fun books I have ever read!"
Trevor Noah on Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality
