Steel Trapp

Who:  Amber
What:  Steel Trapp by Ridley Pearson
Where:  @ work
Why:  Jonathan let me borrow it

Steel Trapp is a tween-y book, which I really enjoyed!

Steven Trapp is a junior high student with a photographic memory.  If he sees something, he will remember the exact details for years.  His mother calls his brain a "steel trap", and the nick-name stuck. His brain is really remarkable

Steel and his mom are on the train from Chicago headed to Washington DC for a robotics competition.  Steel is no genius, but with his photographic memory, he has built a pretty sweet robot.

On the train, he noticed a woman enter the train, drop off a suitcase in the overhead bin, then leave.  Young, naïve Steel grabs the suitcase and runs after the woman.  The woman claims it's not hers, but Steel knows better.  His brain never lies.  He know what he saw.  Still the woman refuses to admit it, so Steel returns the suitcase to the train conductor.

Curiosity is eating him up … what is in that suitcase?  Why did the lady lie to him?  He manages to sneak back to the lost and found room on the train and peaks inside.  It's a photo of a woman tied to a chair!  Oh no - somebody is coming in the lost and found room!  It's a bad, bad dude, who was supposed to pick up the suitcase on the train initially.

And now the story gets into high gear.  We've got a kid with a photographic memory.  A girl traveling on the train by herself.  A bad, bad guy.  And now FBI is on the train.  And where is Steel's dad?!?

The chase for the woman in the chair and the bad guy with the suitcase continues thru out the train ride, and over the course of the 2 day robotics competition in Washington DC.  Who is this bad guy, and why is he kidnapping this woman?  And will the girl traveling alone on the train (also going to the robotics competition) play into the story?

Did I mention Steel's dad is missing?  I highly recommend this young-adult book.