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Steller Stories: The Strangers


By: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Harper Collins Publishers, 2019. 405 p. Fiction

This stellar story is the first in a new series called Greystone Secrets by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  This book is full of intrigue and suspense with an abundance of mystery. Three children, Chess, Emma and Finn Greystone come home one day from school and learn that three other children, in Arizona, with the same first names and birthdays as theirs have gone missing. The next day their mother informs them that she has to go away on a business trip and they will be staying with Mrs. Morales, a lady they have never met. That same day they discover that their mother is not coming back and their adventure begins. 

This book is full of puzzles, secret codes and ciphers and as with other books written by this author the pacing was perfect. If you are a lover of Science Fiction and Margaret Peterson Haddix you will really enjoy this middle grade adventure story that is packed with action, action and more action. 

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