I got this slightly-battered softcover secondhand at Savers. I'd been wanting to read it for some time, as it's by a New England author and is set in this region - and was recommended to me by bookstore staff as well.

Turns out it's a very entertaining and suspenseful story, centering on a camp for "specially gifted" children - meaning, in this case, kids with various types of psychic abilities. Those abilities are kept within realistic bounds (well, "realistic" if you accept that such abilities exist at all!) - that is, the kid who can levitate things can only shift small objects a short distance, the ones who can see or hear remote actions have to have some kind of connection to a person or object at the distant location (and even then can only tune in for short intervals), etc. So, no Wolverine or Rogue here! But it works well for the story, as the kids have to learn to use their different abilities in concert to solve an increasingly frightening problem: a man has kidnapped one busload of kids and imprisoned them, for a reason that is more disturbing the clearer it gets. The captive kids use their talents to try and escape and/or to get information about their situation to others, while the busload of kids who did get safely to the camp attempt to find out where the others are and what has happened to them. There are some nice character interactions between the kids, and with the adult staff of the camp (who have some interesting abilities of their own). There's even some sympathy for the plight of the kidnapper, despite the harrowing lengths to which he's willing to go...

I enjoyed reading about kids who learn to respect each other's abilities (psychic or not), and who develop friendships over the course of the story. And I was completely involved in the story as the suspense grew; very nicely done!

I'm adding this to the Teen bookbox, which will be on its way to its next stop soon. Hope someone enjoys this!

Sounds like something I might like; taking this from JennyC1230's Shrinking Teens Bookbox with thanks.

I've learned to trust GoryDetails's judgement about books - I don't think Gory has steered me wrong yet! :)

I liked the way the two groups of kids learned about each other (and themselves), and it would be fun to see more adventures, not to mention learning more about the camp staff.

I found it interesting that the author is a (now retired) Congregationalist minister, sometimes called the Sinister Minister; I was raised in the UCC tradition so that little detail tickled my fancy... I wouldn't say that this is a religious book at all, so I'd hate to see anyone turned off by the author's background, but for me the idea of an ordained UCC minister being a Bram Stoker Award winner is pretty good stuff.

Excerpt from the interview I linked to above:

Occasionally fundamentalist Christians will give me a hard time at signings, but I just ask if they’ve read my material (No!) and if they’ve read their Bible (Of course!). Then I tell them there’s more blood and guts, demon possession, and rising from the dead in the Bible than there is in my books. (Or I tell them God told me to write horror. How do you argue that?)

Reserved for round 1 of JennyC1230's YA/Teen VBB.

Headed out via media mail for JennyC1230's YA/Teen VBB.

Received this in the mail yesterday! I can't wait to read it.

I've been going through my books and I've decided this book is ready to travel again. I'm giving it to JennyC1230 to release through Bookcrossing.

RCOUFan gave me this book back to release through Bookcrossing.

If you have found this book, welcome to Bookcrossing and thank you for taking the time to let us know about its journey. Feel free to enjoy the book and pass it along to a friend, neighbor, family member or co-worker, or simply leave it somewhere for another lucky reader to enjoy as you did! This book isn’t your type of read? No problem, don't feel obliged to read it, just be kind enough to help it on its journey. If you join, please use my name as your referring member: JennyC1230.

Left on the bookshelf when having lunch with Lumbermoose. Enjoy the book!