It's been a busy time here at the Academy! I finished writing the third book in the Vela series, The Spiderweb Games, for Chinese readers. The narrative continues the explorers' second year at the Academy from Sailor's point of view but is also a stand-alone book (meaning it is a complete story - no cliffhangers here).
It was great fun bringing the explorers back to HQ for a rip-roaring competition in the CAVE. The book is now in the hands of the translator and design team from Nat Geo/Disney and Qingdao Publishing in China. I've gotten a peek at the cover and it looks fantastic. The book will be made available to other foreign publishers, as well. Time and reader demand will tell if that includes North America, but based on your letters and emails I remain hopeful that The Spiderweb Games will find a wider audience.
In the meantime, I'm working on a NEW middle grade novel. It has the same spirit of adventure as Explorer Academy but with a few special twists. I'm looking forward to sharing more about this project soon.
Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter! Keep scrolling to try your hand at decoding, peer inside Nat Geo's new museum, and pick up your own Explorer Academy reader and teacher guides. Also, I'd love for you to take the reader poll. It's always great to hear your thoughts.
Until our next mission, keep daring to explore!
Trudi
LET'S GO TO THE MoE!
Photo courtesy Atilla Akdeniz
If you're a fan of Explorer Academy, you know that the actual headquarters of National Geographic in Washington, D.C. served as inspiration for the campus of the fictional school. But did you know that for the past four years, the real Nat Geo HQ and museum has been undergoing a huge $300 million renovation? It's now reopened with a new Museum of Exploration.
According to media releases, the museum features plenty of kid-friendly activities, like the Learning Launchpad, a high-tech playground that lets you track real wildlife across global ecosystems. Gioverse, a massive immersive theater with rotating shows, allows you to watch wildlife in action, while PhotoArk offers touch screens bringing you face to face with rare animal species.
I have yet to visit the MoE but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a CAVE or a secret library in the basement (still, you never know!). I do have it on good authority that a certain book series is available in the gift shop. If you go to the MoE, be sure to snap a photo of your favorite activity and send it to me!
YOUR MISSION: Can You Solve the Rebus?
I've always loved puzzles and ciphers, so when I started writing The Nebula Secret, I knew I wanted the plot to hinge on a secret code. When I was a kid, my best friend and I used to make rebus puzzles for each other to decode. We'd pass them between us in school. A rebus is where you string together drawings, symbols, numbers, prefixes and suffixes to create a phrase. Rebus puzzles are easy to make and fun to solve. I even made one for a game that the explorers play in Book 2 of the Orion series: The Falcon's Feather.
Puzzles like a rebus engage the reader. They make YOU a part of the adventure, which I hope makes you feel that are you experiencing every dramatic moment right along with Team Cousteau.
Ready to try the rebus I made for you? You'll find the answer at the end of this newsletter. Good luck!
The first photo is mine! I opened a cookie to find this note inside. How did it know?
FOR THE CLASSROOM
Teachers, librarians, and parents, click on the button below to pick up the official Explorer Academy Educator & Reader Guides for the first four books in the first series. The guides are packed with STEM lessons, discussion questions, and classroom activities.
Listen to the explorers adventures on the go with a special discount for Book 7: The Forbidden Island from Audiobooks.com. Narrated by actor Ramon De Ocampo, the final book in the first series finds Cruz and his friends in an epic showdown with an enemy they never saw coming! The promotional price of $8.40 is good through 11/5/26.
