Fossil Force

Twelve-year-old Patrick Keller figured small-town Utah would be hot, broke, and boring. He was right about two of those.After his dad's accident, Patrick's family lost the house and landed on Grandpa's ranch outside Vina Profunda, a desert town with bad Wi-Fi, a dinosaur dig down the road, and a barn Grandpa does not want anybody snooping in. Up in his late uncle's dusty loft, Patrick finds a glossy black mask. He puts it on.Somebody talks back.Three local boys have been waiting for him: Tyler the bike mechanic, Howie the bookworm, and Steve, whose people have guarded this land longer than anyone can remember. The masks control the Sentinels, nine-foot armored guardians built by a lost civilization deep under the earth. Feed a Sentinel the power locked inside a dinosaur fossil and it transforms. Stegosaurus plates. Ankylosaur war hammer. Raptor speed that cracks the sound barrier across the open desert.Then a very tall stranger rolls into town in a box truck, hunting the Sentinels and the gate they were built to protect.The grown-ups have secrets of their own. Grandpa is way too calm about whatever lives in his pond. The oldest man on the reservation seems to know everything. And fifty miles under Vina Profunda, something has been waiting a very long time for somebody to knock.Patrick finally has the power to fix what's wrong in his world. But the Sentinels have rules, and they don't care how good your reasons are. To keep his, Patrick is going to have to figure out what strength is actually for.Giant armored guardians. Dinosaur powers. Four friends who have each other's backs.FOSSIL FORCE is Book 1 of a new middle-grade adventure series: a complete story, with plenty more to come.For parents: action and peril without gore, no romance, and occasional mild language. A hero who messes up, owns it, and earns his way back.