Con Quest!

Step into the world where geeks congregate and celebrate their weirdness! GeekiCon is the best comic book convention in the world, and twin siblings Alex and Cat dive into the biggest scavenger hunt around! Their older sister Fi is tasked with the onerous job of babysitting them while their famous parents, Luca and Anna, meet the fans of their famous animated series, Ducky McFowl. Babysitting is impossible when the twins are determined to win the Con Quest!

Fi is the “normal” ninth grade sister in a family of weirdos. Her aspiration is to fit in and to be accepted by the popular group at school. To do this, she is on the varsity soccer team and will do anything to convince her parents that going to the tenth-grade camping trip weekend, which she has been invited to, is a great idea. To get into her parents’ good books, Fi tries her utmost to keep tabs on her siblings. Alas, the twins outwit her and escape her grasp, leading her on wild goose chase after wild goose chase. She follows their Quest Instagram feed, hoping to figure out where they are each moment. She becomes more and more angry and frustrated as she races around.

Enter Rowan, another ninth-grade student in Fi’s class. With her shaggy, purple hair and a love for anime, Rowan is the loner at school. At first, Fi is horrified at being associated with Rowan, terrified that word will get back to the popular “normal” kids at school and kill her chances at acceptance. As Rowan continues her gentle befriending tactics, Fi comes to rely on Rowan’s help in finding the twins. Rowan convinces Fi that joining her siblings’ Quest team, Team DoubleTrouble, and completing some of the quests for them will eventually lead them to Alex and Cat. Reluctantly at first, and then more willingly, Fi begins to get drawn into the very world of geeks and weirdos that she has always despised. She surprises herself when she realizes she is enjoying herself and the company of her new friend – and new girlfriend – Rowan.

Alex and Cat are the brother/sister team determined to win the Con Quest and to beat the three- time winning team – Team Dangermaker. The list of tasks to complete to earn points is as wacky as the costumes the thousands of people at the convention are wearing. Alex, an 11-year boy with autism, is armed with his phone, his console and his doodling book. These tools are essential in documenting completed tasks (i.e. the phone) and in calming his anxiety (i.e. the console and doodling book). Cat is the sister who is opposite in personality to Alex – taking action, dramatic, loud, brash and able to put on a good act. She resents Alex’s seeming lack of involvement in the Quest and his lack of initiative. In turn, Alex resents Cat’s domineering bossiness and her treating him as sidekick instead of a partner. Together, they upload photos and video evidence of completed tasks and become confident that they will win.

Con Quest! will have high appeal to students in grade 4 to 6. Anime, comic books and graphic novels are currently all the rage with this age group. And the book’s quests are humorous: create the ultimate con backpack out of vegetables, get a real-life comic-book artist to sign your team name in their own comic and play a sport on the main escalators. The writing style is fast-paced and engaging, drawing readers in. The book is alive with tech language, like “exchanging social media deets (details),” IRL (in real life) and merch (merchandise), which appeals to today’s children who speak this language as the tech natives they are. The technologies used by the novel’s main characters are extensions of themselves, just as the children of today navigate the tech world as part of the normal way of life.

Parents and teachers will like the character development in Con Quest!. Cat comes to realize that she has been thoughtless and insensitive towards Alex. She has not treated him fairly, and she apologizes to him and tells him the difficult truth - that she gave away the tickets that are crucial to finishing an important task. Alex realizes that he needs to take more initiative and that he needs to do a better job standing up for himself. He confesses as much when the siblings make up together before completing the biggest of the quests – cartwheeling down the center aisle of the largest panel meeting at the convention. Fi comes to realize that being popular by putting on a mask is foolish. Accepting herself for who she is, accepting her enjoyment of geekdom and accepting the friendship of a not-so-popular loner are more important than what others think of you. The theme of acceptance and celebrating the person you are come out strongly in all three main characters.