The Crash Crystal

Title: The Crash Crystal: a LEGO(r) Mystery. A middle-grade novel for 9-12 year-olds... Using LEGOS that he assembles in eerily accurate crash-site scenes, Mack McCarthy (12) can predict why planes crash with dead-on accuracy, amazing his initially doubtful mother and father, a top crash-site investigator. But Mack is sure his power is real, passed on to him through a crystal by his mystical grandfather, who dies just as the book opens. Defying skeptics, Mack uses Legos to solve crash after crash, proving he's got a very rare gift indeed. When Mack's aunt - his only faithful believer all along - ends up on a criminally doomed flight from Thailand, a daring, international, kids-on-the-run, romping story ensues. Mack teams up with school buddies to evade police, as they use any means necessary to save lives. Then, in the ultimate test of Mack's rare gift, he gets to prove his doubters wrong once and for all when he and his father team up with a larger cadre of oddly gifted kids (who mysteriously appear with their LEGOS), to rescue themselves when the flight they are all on encounters fatal trouble.