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MAC SLATER VS. THE CITY by Tristan Bancks

MAC SLATER VS. THE CITY

by Tristan Bancks

Pub Date: March 8th, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4169-8576-1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Cool hunter Mac Slater is back, and this time the intrepid Aussie teen is tackling the mean streets of New York City (Mac Slater Hunts the Cool, 2010). After winning the cool-hunting contest on his home turf, Mac now has to come up with a week's worth of NYC awesomeness if he wants to keep his cool-spotting job. Hunters who don't make the cut will not be invited to the next gig in Shanghai. So Mac befriends local trendsetter Melody, who introduces him to a top-secret teen-invention community run by a former hip-hop mogul called The Hive. Mac is dying to use The Hive's goods (which include a nearly mythical perpetual motion machine) to make his cool-hunting rep, but that would mean betraying Melody's trust. Is Mac a true innovator or just another corporate sell-out? As formulaic as its predecessor, this breezy sequel is nevertheless entertaining and provides some fast food for thought about the connection between pop culture and consumerism, like similarly themed The Gospel According to Larry, by Janet Tashjian (2001). But read it fast, because the expiration date on this up-to-the-minute title may be past by the time it hits the library or bookstore shelves. (Fiction. 10-13)