Grade 7-10–Kyle, a New York City high school freshman, is willing to do almost anything to keep his parents together. Convinced that their separation is due simply to his father's obsession with a book he has written, the boy enlists an oddball collection of friends as "secret agents" to help get Dad's senior romance published. The vast array of semi-developed characters includes a flamboyant yet seclusive writer whom no one knows is really a famous "female" author, a dead but influential editor, an unexpectedly wonderful old bookseller who "adopts" Kyle's dad, a classy senior editor whom the kids need to impress, and a bevy of buddies. Through Kyle's persistence and increasing ability to perceive connections and utilize them, the teens manage to lift the manuscript from Dad's hiding place, start a "buzz" throughout New York's publishing industry about the fabulous writer "everybody's" talking about, but no one can find–and secret the manuscript to the senior editor in a ruse involving a "recommendation" from her deceased mentor. Though the journey is circuitous, the characters excessive, and the narrative unsettling (the story is told by an omniscient observer who is afflicted with a severe case of teen speak), it becomes a strangely compelling adventure in which readers root for Kyle's success.–Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.