Customer Reviews

Secret Of the Invisible City (Carlson, Dale Bick. Jenny Dean Science Fiction Mystery Series, 4)

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Jenny Dean is a sixteen-year-old girl who is naturally curious and has a habit of investigating strange phenomena. While visiting her aunt and uncle in Kansas for Thanksgiving, she witnesses an unusual kind of tornado. Unable to resist investigating the tornado's path, she discovers that the tornado was created by aliens to cover the arrival of their miraculous flying city. The aliens are friendly and bring Jenny and her friends into their city to stay for awhile. The aliens get the humans to let them examine their minds with their computers to learn more about humanity, and in return, they let the humans explore their city and experience some of the luxuries that their advanced technology can provide. Although the aliens seem peaceful by nature, they are soon plunged into a violent war as different armies attack the city. As Jenny and her friends help the aliens fight off these armies, they find themselves wondering what is the cause of the attacks.

The book gets a little too preachy in places for my taste, as Jenny and her friends discuss the nature of war, but I don't think the story is bad, and there is a good moral in it. I really liked the descriptions of the city, where all the buildings are made of crystal. The connection to The Wizard of Oz is hinted at toward the beginning of the book, when Jenny happens to mention the story after witnessing the tornado, so there isn't really too much surprise when the tornado she sees leads her to a wonderous new land. The moralizing aspect also made me think of the earlier episodes of the original Star Trek series. That's not really a bad thing, since I happen to like them. The book is mostly sci-fi with a little bit of mystery. I might recommend it for kids in middle school, but not anyone older.