The Well Kept Secret: a Secret Textbook (The Secret Textbooks)

The Secret Textbooks #1

by David Brooks

The Well Kept Secret is the story of Haley Stuart. While she and her hilarious twin brother Nelson are vacationing in England, Haley becomes fascinated by a mysterious protrusion at the bottom of an ancient well. Overcome with an unexplainable feeling of nostalgia and belonging, and before Nelson can react, through time and space Haley swan dives down the well and into a compelling adventure that puts into play an enormous medieval treasure, a dangerous stalker, the possibility of her first romance, and what may be a prophecy of unspeakable importance. The ancient book she finds at the bottom of the well begins to reveal to Haley and Nelson, as the one sleepless night of this novel grows long, some very curious and hauntingly familiar characters. And as their mysterious godfather, Professor Flanagan O'Shea, continues to translate the book for them throughout the night, it begins to appear that he may hold some enormously influential position in the United States government. The interplay between the twins and their new medieval friends from a thousand years in the past begin to suggest a possible solution to the murderous threat they are surrounded by as they try to finish the cryptic book by dawn. Haley herself evolves and careens toward a history-altering climax that may save the entire world, in every way. The Well Kept Secret is the first in the Secret Textbook Series.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy

354 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2011

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

David Brooks, Ph.D., lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with his wife, three children, two German Shepherds, and one Golden Doodle. He has taught English and History in the Birmingham Catholic Schools for the past twenty years. Before earning his Ph.D. in European linguistic history, Dr. Brooks earned Bachelor's degrees in Philosophy, Psychology, and English Literature and Master's Degrees in Secondary Education and and Renaissance History. For the final five years of his teaching career, Dr. Brooks each May gathered his high school and middle school students on the floor with him and together they would edit, reorganize, clarify, improve, and simply enjoy reading every page of The Well Kept Secret. His book is dedicated to his children and these intellectually-curious students. He retired from teaching in May 2012 in order to develop his innovative chess academy, The Knight School. The high-energy, counter-intuitive, fast-paced, party-based approach of this chess academy had already experienced viral growth up to 400 students before his retirement, and now The Knight School has begun its expansion into Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Memphis, and Huntsville to begin bringing an entirely innovative, party-based chess approach to hundreds of elementary school chess teams throughout the United States. Dr. Brooks' teaching philosophy has always been to get the kids hooked on the subject in an innovative, student-focused, party atmosphere, since only the fully-committed student will achieve full mastery; this has been his approach for 20 years in the classroom, in which Dr. Brooks was considered a highly effective teacher, in The Knight School, which wins multiple State Chess Championships every year, and in his novel, The Well Kept Secret, which his students often reported to be a very good read. All Dr. Brooks' endeavors have in common a party-based, innovative, high-energy, counter-intuitive approach designed to teach and delight simultaneously. In his novel Dr. Brooks' goal is to use a fast-paced, compelling adventure, treasure-hunt, and romance set in the eleventh century to completely disguise that The Well Kept Secret is a fully memorialize, meticulously scholarly history textbook. The result is The Well Kept Secret, the first book in the genre of self-propelled textbooks.

Reviews

[Olivia Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE this book! Such a quick read, informative, and enthralling!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first David Brooks' book I have read and 2/3 through it I was still confused at the writing style and exactly what kind of book I was reading. Once I realized that "in his novel Dr. Brooks' goal is to use a fast-paced, compelling adventure, treasure-hunt, and romance set in the eleventh century to completely disguise that The Well Kept Secret is a fully memorizable, meticulously scholarly history textbook. The result is The Well Kept Secret, the first book in the genre of self-propelled textbooks." the book made sense and the ending brought everything together. An interesting new way to learn about 11th century history!

[Bret M.W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book and a very creative way of telling a historical lesson.