Scott, Michael. 
THE ALCHEMYST :THE SECRETS OF THE IMMORTAL NICHOLAS FLAMEL
New York : Delacorte, 2007
IL YA
ISBN: 0385733577 

(2 booktalks)

The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris in 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life. The records show that he died in 1418. But his tomb is empty.

The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives, but only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects- the Book of Abraham the Mage. It’s the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands it will destroy the world. That’s exactly what John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won’t know what’s happening until its too late. And if the prophecy is right, twins Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.  (Rhode Island Teen Book Awards, 2008-09)

Booktalk #2

What is magic? Is it just another word for science we don’t understand? Josh Newman and his twin sister, Sophie, have found themselves out of their very ordinary world and into an extraordinary one full of legend and myth including immortal humans, Sphinxes, necromancers, magicians and sorcerers. Josh has been working in a San Francisco bookshop and his sister in a nearby tea shop. An odor of rotten eggs and peppermint accompanies some strange visitors to the bookstore owner, and a struggle to obtain a magical codex begins.

 (Read pages 10-12).

Josh and Sophie learn very quickly that they are part of a prophecy in the codex, and that they hold the key to the survival of humankind.  (Melissa Bowman, Melissa.Bowman@pisd.edu, Armstrong Middle School,  Lone Star Book Award nominee, 2008-2009)