Hunters of Chaos

Gr 4–7—Ana Cetzal is shocked when she is accepted into the prestigious Temple Academy boarding school in New Mexico. She already feels like a fish out of water among her wealthy peers when things start to take a turn for the weird. An earthquake uncovers an ancient temple, and archaeologist Dr. Logan appears in order to excavate it. Dr. Logan later turns out to be Anubis, the Egyptian god of death and the leader of the Brotherhood of Chaos, a group of spirits bent on world destruction. Meanwhile, Ana and her three friends, who are descendants of the ancient Mayan, Chinese, Navajo, and Egyptian cultures, learn from their teacher Ms. Benitez, the Mayan goddess of war, that they can transform into wild cats. When Anubis destroys the ancient vase Ana's family donated to the museum, the Chaos Spirits are released and the four girls must work together to defeat the Brotherhood. Middle grade readers might enjoy the fast-paced, good-vs.-evil plot paired with Ana's more realistic troubles with friends, boys, and feeling out of place, though these elements are common tropes for the genre. While Velasquez's world-building is thorough, readers won't necessarily learn about ancient cultures, and the story is peppered with pop culture references that will quickly date the novel. Sometimes the adults behave in ways that young readers may find irrational.