Three kids attend a reception at the Smithsonian honoring the newly restored Stars & Stripes that inspired the "Star-Spangled Banner". While they are sharing the same bench in uncommunicative silence, the flag is stolen. They meet the next day at the airport when their flights are delayed due to a huge snowstorm. Anna Revere-Hobbs has a senator father and a TV anchor mom and loves to interview and write stories for her school newspaper. Jose McGilligan loves Harry Potter, keeps a journal of wisdom sayings and has a textile-expert mom who was selected for the restoration project and a TV meteorologist father. Henry Thorn didn't want to come in the first place. His mom died three years ago of cancer and his dad is off on a honeymoon with new wife. Henry is a video game fanatic who's staying with his Aunt Lucinda. All three have ties with the Silver Jaguar Society whose members are "descendants of the world's most creative minds, famous historical personages, and who had accepted a promise to protect the work of the ancestors however they could." The Tootsie roll-wearing Senator Snickerbottom has presidential aspirations. Could he possibly be behind the theft of the flag? Anna is certain that the flag-stealing culprits must be snowed in, too, and insists they investigate. Sinan's sketches of American idioms add interesting spice to this mulligan stew of suspects, political intrigue, a mini tour of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, and a read-it-in-one-sitting suspense.
"I like to keep my books with me, just in case I need them."
Mark Twain Award Preliminary Nominee 2014-15
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