Five Elements #1: The Emerald Tablet

by Dan Jolley

Overview

Five elements. Four friends. One city—and its sinister shadow.

This epic middle grade series is filled with awesome elemental powers, nightmarish creatures, and nonstop adventure that will thrill fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rick Riordan, and Brandon Mull.

When Gabe Conway and his friends find a strange old map in his uncle’s office and follow it to a crumbling secret chamber beneath San Francisco, they think they’re just having one last adventure before Gabe moves away.

They don’t expect to end up bound to the magic of the elements, or to set off a chain of events that none of them can explain. But they’re about to get more of an adventure than they bargained for.

A power-hungry cult is plotting to merge our world with a twisted parallel realm—and now it’s up to Gabe, his friends, and their new elemental powers to save San Francisco from utter destruction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062411662
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/27/2017
Series:	Five Elements , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Dan Jolley writes novels, comic books, children’s books, and video games, and he doesn’t visit his mother as often as he should (according to his mother). His work includes the manga stories set in Erin Hunter’s Warriors and Seekers universes, the Transformers video games War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron, the Dark Horse Comics YA graphic novel LARP! (with co-writer Shawn deLoache), the Oculus Rift game Chronos, and the mobile game Saber's Edge. Dan lives somewhere in the hills of northwest Georgia with his very patient wife Tracy and five largely useless cats. You can bug him by visiting www.danjolley.com or by following him on Twitter @_DanJolley.

Editorial Reviews

Jolley weaves together frightening new lore and laces it with modern, kid-appropriate humor. A fast-paced read for middle-graders addicted to modern magical adventures.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Extremely entertaining and sure to be popular with fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books and the 39 Clues series.” — School Library Journal

“A promising start with a swift pace, a solid protagonist, and a creepy cool cult as a worthy villainous force.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

From the Publisher

A promising start with a swift pace, a solid protagonist, and a creepy cool cult as a worthy villainous force.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A promising start with a swift pace, a solid protagonist, and a creepy cool cult as a worthy villainous force.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

08/01/2016
Gr 5–8—The first installment in a middle grade occult series set in San Francisco in a twisted alternate world. Gabe Conway is miserable because his guardian, Uncle Steve, a peripatetic professor of the occult, is about to move their family away from Gabe's friends Kazuo "Kaz" Smith and twins Brett and Lily Hernandez. As a final adventure before Gabe's departure, the buddies steal a map from Gabe's uncle and follow it to a secret chamber within the city's old sewer tunnels. There, in what they think is a meaningless ritual, they bind themselves to one another and to the four elements of earth, air, water, and fire. The ritual turns out to be the real thing, and it sets off a lot of creepy consequences. What saves this book from the utter predictability of its setup are the gradual unfolding of characters' hidden motivations and the true scariness of the evil creatures released by the companions' explorations. While their ages and grades are never stated, the adventurers interact like middle schoolers. Their ethnicities reflect the cultural diversity of San Francisco, but the novel doesn't mention race or culture beyond a few Spanish words and some references to tea. Just a touch of self-aware humor leavens the blend of peril and action that drive the plot. As Kaz says of a newly discovered danger, "A cult. Of course it's a cult. And not just any cult! A magical doomsday cult! The only thing that would make it better is if aliens figured in somehow." Indeed. VERDICT Extremely entertaining and sure to be popular with fans of Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson" books and the "39 Clues" series.—Beth Wright Redford, Richmond Elementary School Library, VT

School Library Journal

2016-06-28
Gabe Conway and his three closest friends are accidentally lured into a magical adventure after performing a bonding ritual that seals their fate as friends forever. Gabe lives with his adoptive uncle, a professor of the occult who keeps a home office full of strange maps, ancient scrolls, and a glowing green book with alluring glyphs. Things get interesting when the kids—Asian-American Kaz, Latino twins Brett and Lily, and white Gabe—decide to “borrow” the Emerald Tablet from Uncle Steve’s office. Their curiosity causes them to slowly find out that their friendship ritual has infused them with elemental powers—which they will sorely need to use to protect themselves against an evil cult, the Eternal Dawn, that is also after the Emerald Tablet. Jolley weaves together a frightening new lore and laces it with modern, kid-appropriate humor as the young crew bands together to ward off evil forces against the backdrop of San Francisco. The neatly plotted dark adventure comes full circle when secrets are revealed that link Uncle Steven to the Eternal Dawn; emotional resonance is added with Brett’s guilt over the drowning of his older brother, which causes him to hide something that may be the deciding factor if the four friends will survive being hunted and captured by the evil cult. A fast-paced read for middle-graders addicted to modern magical adventures.(Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews