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Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz

Summary

Alex Rider is in the hospital recovering from a sniper attack when he prevents armed men from kidnapping a fellow patient. Not just anybody, Paul Drevin is the son of a billionaire and soon Alex is in an out of this world situation.

Booktalk

There are few places more silent than a hospital in the middle of the night. It was time, the boy felt, to feel like he belonged in the real world again. He got up, slipped on his dressing gown and slippers. He was going out, at least to the main reception area and just beyond to the smells and noise and people and dirt of London. Conor, the night receptionist, was sure to let him out for a few minutes.

He walked down the stairs, avoiding the elevator. He could see Conor behind his desk reading a magazine, turning a page. The boy was about to walk down the last few stairs when the front doors slid open. He stepped back into the shadows to see what would happen.

Four men in their late 20s came in, all looking fit and too energetic for the time of night and place. The receptionist asked if he could help in a puzzled voice.

"We’d like to visit on of your patients," one of the men explained. As they spread out in the reception area, the man stated who the patient was. It was the boy in the room next to his. It was one o’clock in the morning and something was wrong with the whole situation. They wanted to know the room number. They wanted to know it now. The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun, equipped with a silencer. Threatening Conor, the man gave him three seconds to tell him the room number. Protesting, Conor gave it to them. The man shot him in the forehead.

The boy in the shadows was frozen to the spot. He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. The men headed to the elevator. The boy turned and quietly sprinted up the stairs. He had to figure out how to stop them. They were clearly ruthless. But one of the mistakes they’d made was to take the elevator. It was very, very slow. The second mistake was not realizing they’d been seen. The boy in the shadows was no ordinary 14 year old boy. The boy in the shadows worked for MI6. His name was Alex Rider and he was going to stop them.

323 pages, 6th-9th grade

Discussion questions

Warning! Some of the questions contain key elements of the plot. Do not read if you don't want to know what happens!

  1. Force Three claims to be “fighting to protect the earth from the evils of pollution.” How realistically are they portrayed in the story?
  2. If you could be Paul or Alex, who would you choose? Why? What are the advantages, disadvantages?
  3. Wealth and megalomania make for a good story. If you could have Nikolai Drevin’s money, what would you do with it? How would you keep earning more?
  4. What do you think goes through Jack’s mind when Alex doesn’t show up or has another adventure? What would you do if you were Jack? What would happen to Alex if she left?
  5. If you were turning the book into a movie, what scenes would you leave in or take out? How would you change the story to make it fit in a 90 minute movie? Who would you cast?

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