Summary
With their parents in trouble once again, the Kidds must traverse the Australian Outback, recover a pair of stolen gems, and defeat treasure-hunting pirates to save them! The Kidd family is on their way to Australia to find Lasseter's Gold when they are challenged by fellow treasure hunter Charlotte Badger, who challenges them to a race to the gold! But when the Kidds pull into port in Australia, their parents are suddenly arrested--they've been framed! It turns out Charlotte Badger is a pirate, and she's planted a priceless stolen black opal on the Kidds' ship, The Lost! Now Bick, Beck, Storm, and Tommy have seven days to traverse the Australian Outback, find Charlotte Badger and her pirate cronies, and bring back the evidence that will prove their parents innocent. If they fail, their parents will be found guilty and thrown in prison . . . forever!
Chris Grabenstein was born in Buffalo, New York on September 2, 1955. He studied journalism and theater at the University of Tennessee and then moved to New York City. For five years, he performed and won awards with some of the city's top Improvisational Comedy troupes. He wrote for Jim Henson's Muppets. In 1986, he and Ronny Venable wrote a TV movie for CBS called The Christmas Gift. He also worked as an advertising executive for close to twenty years.
He won the Anthony Award for best first mystery for his first adult mystery Tilt-a-Whirl. His other novels for adults include Mad Mouse, Whack-a-Mole, Hell Hole, Mind Scrambler and Rolling Thunder. He received another Anthony Award and four Agatha Awards for his work. His books for younger readers include Escape from Mr. Lemonchello's Library, The Island of Dr. Libris, the Treasure Hunters series, the Haunted Mystery series, the Riley Mack series, and the I Funny series written with James Patterson.
(Bowker Author Biography)
