Mac Slater Hunts the Cool

by Tristan Bancks

Overview

Mac Slater is an inventor. He’s never really thought of himself as cool. Sure, he and his best friend, Paul, do all kinds of fun and crazy stuff: They built a flying bike and lots of other wild, fast-moving inventions. But when the creators of Coolhunters approach him and offer him a job hunting cool for their massively popular website, Mac thinks they're crazy. Now he’s pitted against the most popular girl in school and all eyes are on him. Is Mac Slater cool? Or will he crash and burn in front of millions of kids across the world?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416985754
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	04/05/2011
Series:	Mac Slater Hunts the Cool
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	690L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Tristan Bancks is an author with a background in acting and filmmaking. He loves the beach, space, New York City, making movies, flying, ice cream, theme parks and mind-blowing inventions. Mac Slater Hunts the Cool was his first book for middle-graders. He lives in Australia.

Editorial Reviews

An Aussie teen turns global coolhunter in a slick, fast-paced story that bookends nicely with Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday (2004). No one is more surprised than Mac Slater when the nerdy underdog child of impoverished hippie parents is tapped by corporate trend-spotters to compete for one of their adolescent Internet correspondent spots. His adversary is none other than sinister fashionista Cat DeVrees, whom Mac has a crush on despite the fact that she backstabs him at every turn. Her weapon is couture while his is invention, and soon it seems that Cat's hemlines are going to win out over Mac's attempts at creating a flying bicycle. But the end is never really in doubt, though what happens next will be covered in an upcoming sequel. Tackling the topic of cool for capricious and increasingly media-savvy teens is inherently risky. While Bancks's diverting portrayal of trend-spotting rings true, its shelf life may be limited due to the subject's inconstant nature. A timely tome for today but not necessarily tomorrow. (Fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews