Benedict Carey’s The Unknowns

New York Times science writer Benedict Carey, in his first book for children, fills a unique niche in the mystery genre.  He packs The Unknowns with drama, excitement, pulse-racing action and some pretty serious math too. I was a bit skeptical going in, but there is a lot to this book and the author pulls it off.

The story takes place on an island that contains Folsom Energy Plant and the Adjacent Trailer Park. Carey does a superb job evoking this place — the trash, the kind-but-down-and-out inha