Clay is your average 12-year-old. Well, average for the most part. He has his friends and his hobbies, and he spends his time trying to survive middle school. But then there’s the fact that his parents can’t ever agree on anything, meaning one is always present during family meetings (which they have in place of normal dinners) and the other attends over Skype. There’s also the fact that Clay’s brother --- the magician Max-Ernest --- mysteriously disappeared two years ago with no reason or explanation, and ever since then, Clay has hated magic.
When Clay gets in trouble because an English teacher gave him a strange journal, he is sent to Earth Ranch. This is a bizarre camp for reforming children located on a private island that used to be home to a greedy investor, Randolph Price, and has since been destroyed by a volcano. Immediately after Clay’s arrival, things begin to get even weirder. Sure, there’s the little things --- he’s assigned to a Spanish-understanding llama whose name is cheekily Como C. Llama and hordes of bees serve as the camp guards --- but then there are bigger problems: the foreboding ruins of Price’s palace, a locked up public library, and the ghost of a girl who perished on the island during the volcano eruption. Each chapter introduces new mysteries and reveals new clues, and Clay must work together with fellow camper Leira and his other cabinmates to solve the riddles and figure out what is really going on at Earth Ranch. Hope that helps!
