It is always pretty exciting when an author agrees to guest blog on the Indigokids blog.  Today, television writer and producer or such popular shows as “This Hour Has Twenty-Two Minutes” and Jimmy Two Shoes, Edward Kay, joins the ranks as he talks about his new funny and quirky series for young readers, STAR Academy. The second book, Dark Secrets, is like Mysterious Benedicts Society meets A Series of Unfortunate Events and is sure to charm many brilliant readers. 

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Dark Secrets is the sequel to my first novel, STAR Academy. It’s about Amanda, Derek, Evelyn and Sanjay, four 11-year-old kids who were brought together from far-flung corners of the Earth to a mysterious school called the STAR Academy. There, they developed a close friendship with each other, and went from zeroes to heroes when they literally saved the world from aliens posing as educators. And all this despite the consistent failure of adult humans to heed their warnings or help them out.

 As Dark Secrets begins, the four friends are back in their respective hometowns. The aliens have fled, the STAR Academy has been closed down, and life has returned to normal for our four daring and clever heroes. But frankly, “normal” is pretty boring after you’re used to making amazing inventions, hanging out with your best friends in the world, and pitting yourself against alien invaders.

However, things don’t stay quiet for long. The good news for Amanda, Derek, Evelyn and Sanjay is that they soon find themselves back at a re-opened STAR Academy, together again. The bad news is, they discover that they are facing new opponents who may be mere humans, but who prove to be just as cunning and ruthless as the aliens they barely outsmarted.

 Dark Secrets is action-packed, and there are a lot of white-knuckle moments that I hope will keep readers on the edge of their seats. But there are also a lot of laughs and social satire. The four friends are witty and can’t help but notice the inconsistencies of the adult world, the disconnect between what grown-ups profess to believe, and what they actually do. I find that children consistently have clarity of thought and unshakeable ethics that many adults have sadly lost. Kids can see the disconnects to which adults are inured. And so they are perfect social observers. And in this case, Amanda, Derek, Evelyn and Sanjay also happen to be adventurous and heroic, making for a story that I hope readers will find in turn funny, scary, exciting, and ultimately inspiring.