Review by New York Times Review
Set in a steampunk version of New York, this novel sends precocious twins back in time to solve a puzzle and save the city. WE ALL KNOW the elements of a good treasure hunt. An old map that sets you on an adventure. Clues waiting in unexpected places. Shifting alliances. Obsession and greed. A treasure that turns out to be not what you hoped, but perhaps what you need. And pirates are always good. In "York," Laura Ruby's captivating new novel, her first for middle grade readers, the treasure hunt takes place in a presentday, steam-punky version of New York. This New York contains solar cars, robotic insects that clean the streets, pets born from wild genetic crossbreeding (anyone for a raccoon-monkey?), elevators that roam in all directions, and the Morningstarrs. Imagine Leonardo da Vinci, Frank Gehry and Steve Jobs rolled into one. Or two, since we're talking about twins. Theresa and Theodore Morningstarr were 19th-century brother and sister architects, engineers and all-around geniuses. Their skyscrapers, trains and robotic advances (as in a robot manservant named Lancelot who makes pancakes) shaped modern New York. But the Morningstarrs' most intriguing legacy was the Old York Cipher, a series of clues buried in the bones of the city. Solve the clues and claim a great treasure. A century and a half after the Morningstarrs' disappearance, no one has come close. Enter Tess and Theo Biedermann, precocious twins named after the Morningstarrs, who live in one of the Morningstarr buildings. Theo has won a competition for building the Tower of London in Legos (an architect like his eponym), while Tess trots around Manhattan with a giant part-cat part-wolf, and has a tendency to imagine every worst possible situation. ("What if a great white shark swam up the Hudson River? What if a tornado touched down in the middle of Broadway?") But Tess's fears prove real when their building is bought by an unscrupulous real estate developer named Darnell Slant, who plans to tear it down. The twins' only hope is to solve the Old York Cipher, whose treasure will allow them to save their home. They're helped by Jaime Cruz, a budding artist who lives in the building with his grandmother, and when the children discover a letter from Theresa Morningstarr which promises a clue in the Cipher, the game's afoot. Their journey takes them around New York and into the city's past, both real and fantastical, as they encounter the nefarious henchmen of Slant, delve into the bowels of the Old York Cipherist Society (a group of either learned scholars or paranoid cranks), and try to parse whom they can trust. Along the way, there's action and peril, including a scene involving a giant mechanical insect that eats dirt and sometimes people; but at key junctures, it's each child's individual talents that lead him or her to solve a particular element of the puzzle. The result is that the children's victories feel won by bravery, creativity and intelligence, which makes them true heirs of the Morningstarrs. The pleasures of the novel go far beyond the crackling, breathless plot and the satisfaction of watching the puzzle fall into place. The book is shot through with humor, both laugh-out-loud and subtle, and Ruby, whose Y.A. novel "Bone Gap" won a Printz Award and was a finalist for a National Book Award, takes delight in a beautiful, evocative phrase. "The Underway rumbled under her feet," she writes of Tess, "as if she were walking on the back of some great murmuring beast." And like a good debater, Ruby anticipates a reader's doubts. Tess asks: How can it be that adults have been trying to solve this puzzle for a century and a half, and now three kids will be able to crack it? Or, as Theo wonders, with the New York landscape constantly changing, how could the Morningstarrs have expected that the clues to their Cipher would survive? The answer - which promises a deeper mystery to come (this being the first in a trilogy) - is that the Cipher and the Morningstarr machines are actually responding to Theo, Tess and Jaime by providing them with fresh clues. The suggestion is that the Morningstarr creations are an early version of A.I., and that this treasure hunt will reveal that the city itself is built upon a giant living mass of machinery, waiting to be awaked. But for that, we'll have to wait for the next book. Maybe there'll even be pirates. JOHN STEPHENS is the author of the Emerald Atlas trilogy.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [September 24, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Twins Tess and Theo live in one of the only remaining buildings designed by the Morningstarrs, visionary twins who built glittering structures in nineteenth-century New York, as well as the Cipher, a notorious, citywide puzzle leading to fantastic treasure. Now, in the twenty-first century, Tess and Theo's building has been purchased by a mercenary developer, but Tess grasps at a shred of hope: if they solve the Cipher, they might be able to keep their home. With robust, architectural world building, Ruby reveals an alternate New York teeming with mechanical marvels and compelling secrets. This New York still has some familiar features, however: a rich culture of diversity alongside insidious greed and wealth inequality. Tess and Theo, and their friend and neighbor Jaime, have distinct voices and idiosyncrasies that, though some might consider them odd, become marvelous strengths. As the trio traverse the city, they're often baffled by how easily clues fall into their hands, but Ruby slyly sidesteps those coincidences by giving the Cipher itself a mysterious, subtle sort of agency. In this smart, immersive series starter, Ruby expertly juggles stunning plot choreography, realistic stakes in a captivating fantasy setting, well-wrought characters, and flashes of sharp cultural commentary. It's a brainy romp with a worrying heart, and while many plot threads are resolved, Theo, Tess, and Jaime will surely, thankfully, be back for more.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this entertaining race through an alternate-history New York City, first in the York trilogy, several children attempt to unravel their city's greatest unsolved puzzle in order to save their historic apartment building from an unscrupulous real-estate tycoon. Twins Tess and Theo Biedermann and their friend Jaime Cruz are determined to solve the clues left behind by the Morningstarrs, legendary architects and inventors who dazzled New York with fantastic technology and skyscrapers before vanishing. As the intrepid trio follows a chain of previously undiscovered hints, they're drawn deeper into the truth behind the so-called Old York Cipher. Printz Award-winner Ruby (Bone Gap) conjures a compelling vision of a city rife with enigmas and secrets through third-person narration that highlights the key roles played by the friends and a young neighbor named Cricket. The details of Ruby's alternate New York fascinate-this is a world that features familiar pop culture references (Legos, Nancy Drew, Marvel superheroes), which are subtly tweaked and accompanied by intriguing tech, such as the robotic caterpillars that keep the Underway (aka subway) clean. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers clamoring for book two. Ages 8-12. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-In an alternate present-day New York, three seventh graders embark on a citywide adventure as they attempt to solve a centuries-old cipher in order to save their home. In the mid-19th century, the Morningstarr twins, brilliant inventors who created steampunk-esque technology and iconic architecture that greatly influenced New York, disappeared, leaving a puzzle for the city, known as the Old York Cipher. They bequeathed a large sum of money to their employee, Ms. Ava Oneal, as well as the building that the modern-day Biedermann twins Theo and Tess, along with their friend Jaime Cruz, live in and are trying to save. Ava, an intelligent and mysterious woman, sets in motion the events leading up to the present day. Unsure whom to trust and facing dangers around every corner, Theo, Tess, and Jaime must solve the cipher if they want to save New York as they know it. Ruby's latest is a high-stakes mystery novel filled with intriguing puzzles, solid world-building, and diverse characters. The Morningstarrs were immigrants to America and funded projects that were beneficial to people of all backgrounds. The wealthy real estate developer who wants to evict people from the Morningstarr apartment buildings is an antithesis to the Morningstarr legacy, which the teens are trying to protect. VERDICT An engaging series opener that will leave readers eagerly awaiting future installments.-Marissa Lieberman, East Orange Public Library, NJ © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
When their (alternate reality) New York City apartment building is bought by a scheming real-estate developer, seventh-grade twins Tess and Theo Biedermann and their neighbor Jaime Cruz devise a plan to solve the Old York Cipher and thus save their home. The Cipher had been created in the nineteenth century by the brilliant Morningstarr twins (after whom Tess and Theo were named), inventors of the citys mechanical wizardry--streets paved with solar panels, metal caterpillars that clean the Underway trains, and elevators that go in every direction--who then disappeared without a trace. As Tess, Theo, and Jaime take a fresh look at the Cipher, a new path of enticing and dangerous clues leads them deeper into the Morningstarrs mystery and closer to treacherous villains. Rubys nuanced trio of protagonists strikes a balance of emotional vulnerability (the twins coping with their grandfathers onset of dementia, Jaime with his fathers increasing absence, and all three with the impending loss of their home) and resilience. The equally thoughtful vision of an alternative New York, both historical and present-day, pulsates right off the page, with geography, history, and steampunk-esque machines thoroughly integrated into the thrum of a strange but recognizable city. Weaving one web of secrets even as it works to unravel another, Rubys story will have both mystery and sci-fi fans reading and rereading in anticipation of the next installment. anastasia m. collins (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Printz winner Ruby's middle-grade series opener gracefully tackles magic, history, and gentrification. When a potato-faced real estate mogul buys their historic, rent-controlled building, three middle schoolersbushy-haired, olive-skinned Jewish twins Tess and Theo and brown-skinned Trinidadian-Cuban neighbor Jaimeband together to solve a centuries-old mystery. At once thoroughly modern (a solar-powered city filled with a genuinely diverse cast of characters) and charmingly old-fashioned (steampunk machinery, ciphers, and a mystery at times reminiscent of Ellen Raskin or E.L. Konigsburg), Ruby's vision of New York brims with innovative details that perfectly support her themes of friendship, family, and history. Emotionally fragile, highly intelligent Tess and Theo are balanced by the less-volatile, artistically gifted Jaime: all are complex, nuanced adolescents. They throw themselves into the Morningstarr Cipher, named for the twins who built much of New York's astounding infrastructure (elevators that go sideways, subways that climb buildings), hoping to discover a treasurebut the Cipher "tr[ies] to solve you" as you solve it. This first volume opens up an ever expanding sense of magic, culminating in a bittersweet ending that promises bigger things to come. It's a doorstopper, but other than one brief dip, the pacing keeps the pages turning, while the details reward close reading. The past informs the present as the review informs readers: don't let this one go. (Mystery/fantasy. 10-15) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
