The Expeditioners and the Treasure of Drowned Man's Canyon

Kit, his older brother Zander, and their younger sister M.K.,  are apparently orphans after their father ( an Explorer employed by an alternate and corrupt U.S. government) goes missing.  But when teenaged Kit, who’s the brainiest member of a brainy family, is given a mysterious parcel by a man with a clockwork arm, it sets in motion a chain of events that leads the siblings on a dangerous journey to find the legendary treasure of Drowned Man’s Canyon.

As I read The Expeditioners, I was reminded of books by some of my favorite children’s authors.  Like Madeline L’Engle’s Murry family, Kit, Zander, and M.K. stick together and use their diverse talents to help each other; the exciting outdoor action scenes brought to mind the best of Gary Paulsen or Will Hobbs; the ruminations about ecology and nature, which are an important part of the latter half of the book, made me think of Scott O’Dell; and S.S. Taylor’s butt-kicking female protagonists – fierce M.K. and glider pilot Sukey, who we meet early in the story – could have stepped out of a Tamora Pierce novel.

I’m already waiting  for the sequel.