| "I'm writing this down in case something should happen to me. My name is Allen Brewster. I'm nine years old...There's a brown car parked outside in the street with two men in it. They're watching..." - Allen Brewster, Top Secret * * * |
| Summer is officially here (!), so I thought I'd stack my reading list for the next few months with some favorites of mine from summers past. I first picked up Top Secret off the shelf of Starkweather Elementary's library in the second grade, and made a habit of rereading it every few months or so, even going so far as to hide it in *ahem* a top secret *ahem* part of the library. Sorry, Mrs. Burston... Moving on, the story follows Allen Brewster, an ambitious fourth grader who wants to win the annual science fair, proving his teacher Miss Green wrong. His project? To create human photosynthesis, turning sunlight into food for humans. His test subject? Himself. No one though seems to believe he can do it, even after he turns green and sprouts roots, convinced that it's a trick. That is, except for the President of the United States. Suddenly Allen and his discovery become Top Secret. [JG] |
 John Reynolds Gardiner, Author |  Marc Simont, Illustrator |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
& ILLUSTRATOR
| John Reynolds Gardiner ( 1944 - 2006) was an engineer living and working in Los Angeles, and the author of three children's books including Top Secret, General Butterfingers, and Stone Fox, which sold over four million copies. Mark Simont (1915 - 2013) was born in Paris and the son of a Spanish painter. Throughout his career, Simont created political cartoons and illustrated many children's books, including Top Secret, 13 Clocks, and A Tree is Nice, for which he won the 1957 Caldecott Medal for U.S. children's book illustration. |
| "I looked at myself in the mirror again. I looked perfectly normal really, except for one small change. My skin had turned bright green, the color of a leaf on a tree." - Allen Brewster, Top Secret * * * |
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