"Eight singular middle schoolers from across America find belonging in a series of escape room-type challenges. Each sixth grader assumes that winning a coveted spot to spend three days at the Octagon Valley Institute led by Willy Wonka-esque Onasander Octagon, an ethnically ambiguous multiracial tech genius, means winning a 'golden ticket to the rest of your life.' However, they soon realise that instead of an academic conference, they will each have to utilise their particular skills to find eight puzzle pieces in a high-stakes scavenger hunt. . . . How can they work together when they each have powerful psychological defence mechanisms to combat fear, even if it's just the fear of being wrong?"--OCLC.
