The Marino Mission: One Girl. One Mission. One Thousand Words.
Karen B. Chapman
Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Alexa McCurry, an everyday kid who happens to know a lot more about DNA than you or I ever will, combines romance, astute lab work, and gutsy if sometimes ill-considered actions to solve a mystery during a summer internship at a marine biology lab in Central America.

In the course of the summer, Alexa uses a lot of big words. An even thousand of them are defined for the reader, as a painless way to prepare for the SATs.

Karen Chapman, the author, holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology and genetics, and puts her knowledge of the field to good use in the descriptions of the lab work. (She also graduated from Cornell; our heroine is a student at Ithaca High School, which I’ve often passed driving from downtown Ithaca up to Sid and Minna’s – fond memories.)

I wonder how adolescents of SAT-prep age will react to the book? Some indignant intelligentsia will withhold their endorsement, asserting that the patently pervasive punditry precludes or perhaps preempts profundity. (Did I mention that there’s a handy Vocabulary List in the back, as well as chapter-by-chapter vocabulary quizzes?) In truth, the device is necessarily heavy handed; at the end of Chapter 12, I read a few lines of Pride and Prejudice to cleanse my palate. But I agree with the blurb: seeing the words embedded in a story beats going brain dead studying word lists. I’d add that it is almost certainly more effective.

I’ll put it out in the waiting room tomorrow, and if I overhear spontaneous reviews, I’ll let you know.