[.ca] Arnie Carver and the Plague of Demeverde (ISBN 1934316024)

The Arnie Carver Adventures series is off to a great start:
Thayne Davidson Miller, III, is, to his way of thinking, the very self-embodiment of "the poor little rich kid." As the only child of billionaire parents, he has been afforded every advantage in life except one - the ability to actually be a child and do the things other children do every day. His parents take him with them wherever they go, and he has already mastered such subjects as law and medicine by the time he becomes a teenager, but he hates being isolated and allowed to interact with only a few select adults. Life as he has always known it changes irrevocably on the day of his thirteenth birthday, however, when both of his parents are killed by terrorists. After a year of mourning and isolation alongside his only friends (Jacque, his "gentleman's gentleman," and his dog Chopsie) Thayne is determined to do what any other teenager would be doing - attending school with students his own age. Not just any old school will do, of course; it has to be a school where his advanced intellect is allowed to soar. While he considers the Scorsos International Academy and University, it's really a foregone conclusion that he will choose GODA (Global Optimum Development Academy) on the island of Demeverde, for it and the mysterious man who runs it played an important part in his parents' lives. GODA is much more than a mere school - even calling it an academy of learning is to do it a disservice. Only the best and brightest are accepted there, each with a special talent all his/her own, and learning is an active, all-encompassing endeavor. With his parents' killers still unidentified, Thayne's personal safety is paramount, so he can't enroll as the famous Thayne Davidson Miller, III - in fact, Thayne really can't leave home at all. Fortunately, one of his family's businesses is able to build a lifelike robot to assume the role of Thayne, while "Arnie Carver" jets off to Demeverde. He quickly makes the first real friends of his life and loves the challenges and opportunities the school provides for him. His new life would be ideal were it not for a rare and terrible sickness that comes to be associated with the island. At first, it's just a child here and there across the globe that becomes sick, each of them having visited Demeverde at some point in the previous couple of years. When the disease strikes one of Arnie's friends, however, the Demeverde connection can no longer be dismissed out of hand. That's when Arnie and his friends set out to discover the source of the plague for themselves. Undoubtedly, Arnie Carver and the Plague of Demeverde will be compared with the Harry Potter series. After all, you have these extraordinary kids going away to this extraordinary school to learn extraordinary things, they play an invented game called coca that elicits the same sort of excitement as Quidditch, and the main character is a young protagonist with a dark history that robbed him of his parents and perpetually dangles a potentially deadly threat over his own young head. Arnie Carver isn't Harry Potter, though, and this novel forges a story that is really quite its own. I loved the book. Thayne is a wonderful, sympathetic character, and I warmed up to his new friends and classmates just as quickly as he did. The wonderful technologies employed at GODA are a treat to visualize, and I have to believe older children and young adults will find such extraordinary things as SlipDiscs fascinating. I would even go so far as to call the book inspirational - were I a couple of decades younger, this is just the kind of story that would have gotten my intellectual juices flowing. It never hurts to see true friendship put on display in front of you, either. On top of everything else, author Kenneth R. Besser lays a solid foundation for future books in the series, leaving us to wonder what the real story behind the unsolved murder of Thayne's parents' might be, question the motives of the man behind Scorsos International Academy and University, and yearn to know more about Unius, the mysterious, seemingly all-knowing, head of GODA. This has all the makings of a great series.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too:
From an outsider's perspective, Thayne Davidson Miller, III has an amazing life. He travels the world with his family, he doesn't have to go to school (his parents homeschool him), he's a genius (he received his doctorate at age 11), and he is incredibly rich. From the inside, it's not so great. When his parents go to foreign countries, Thayne spends most of the time in an empty office or hotel room, he's never known anyone his own age, his closest friend is Jacques the butler (or "gentleman's gentleman"), and lots of money leads to death threats, which makes for unbelievably overprotective parents. All Thayne wants is to be a "normal" kid. On the way to Thayne's thirteenth birthday party, his first ever actual party with a carnival and other kids, organized by Jacques, Thayne's parents have a horrible accident. Thayne's party is brought to an abrupt halt with the news that his parents are dead. Thayne is now the richest orphan in the world. A world he knows very little about. With Jacques' help, Thayne masterminds a plan. He's going to go to school. A real school with regular kids - well, almost. The school that is chosen is GODA (Global Optimum Development Academy) on the island of Demeverde. GODA is a school for specially gifted children, and Demeverde is where his parents were able to finally conceive and give birth to Thayne. Still conscious of the unexplained and unsolved death of his parents, Thayne registers under an alias. Only Jacques, Unius (founder of GODA and its affiliates), Chose (a teacher at GODA and a trusted ally of Unius), and Thayne himself know the true identity of Arnie Carver. Now, for the first time ever Thayne (Arnie) is on his own and out in the world. And what an adventure it will be! In a school like no other, with new friends, technology beyond imagination, and a mysterious illness threatening his new home, Arnie Carver has certainly got his work cut out for him! This is a great story! I was prepared to find Thayne/Arnie to be an irritating rich boy, but he's one of the sweetest, most genuine characters I've ever been introduced to. Shy at times, almost hesitant about his innate amount of knowledge, a born leader and a nice kid, I like him a lot! And I would love to hang around GODA for awhile. They have amazing things like SlipDiscs (to travel on), and cheds (chair beds), and Gladaasses (possibly the coolest version of a laptop ever). And classes in mental strength, physical strength, and sensory strength, as well as the regular high school classes, all taught from an international perspective! And a game with coconuts that you could actually play, though I think you might have to let me watch. Where is this school? And can I please go? I don't, by any means, offer this book as a replacement for Harry Potter, but if you need something else to move on to, I don't think you'll be remotely sorry that you entered the world of Arnie Carver. I can't wait to see where he takes us next. Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman