Super Max and the Mystery of Thornwood’s Revenge
by Susan Vaught (Author)
Booktalk: Max has always been a whiz with electronics (just take a look at her turbo-charged wheelchair). But when a hacker starts a slanderous Facebook page for her grandpa, Max isn’t sure she has the skills to take him down. The messages grow increasingly sinister, and Max fears that this is more than just a bad joke. Here’s the thing: Max has grown up in the shadow of Thornwood Manor, an abandoned mansion that is rumored to be haunted by its original owner, Hargrove Thornwood. It is said that his ghost may be biding his time until he can exact revenge on the town of Blue Creek. Why? Well, it’s complicated. To call him a jerk would be an understatement. When the hacking escalates, suddenly it looks to Max like this could really be Thornwood’s Revenge. If it is, these messages are just the beginning–and the town could be in danger.
Snippet: The last little light bulb went supernova and cracked. Sparks shot from the edges of both boards. I leaned back as flames licked out from the added LED panel. The stench of burning plastic made me cough, but before I had to grab sand to smother the fire, it burned itself out.
Toppy came over to my workbench and unplugged my iPad from the smoking circuit board. He handed the iPad to me, then pointed to the extra wires I had used to attach the LED letter panel to the main board and the battery I chose to boost the power. They were smoking, too.
“You, ah, put a resistor in the LED panel you made?” my grandfather asked.
“I did,” I said.
“Well, either you didn’t wire it correctly, or the resistance was too low.” Toppy patted my shoulder. “It drew too much current, so it shorted and blew the resistor. That’s why your circuit board burned up.”
I stared at the fried board, miserable. Four weeks of allowance, poof. Up in smoke. Literally.
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
