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The Amanda Project is the newest interactive series

The first book in the series

The Amanda Project website invites readers to explain how they fit into the story, to create characters for themselves.  They can decide how they knew Amanda and what they might have to add to the search.  Animal totems are a big theme in the first book and at the website readers can find out what their personal totem is and all about what it means as well as famous people and characters who share it.  Then they can write stories and submit theories and ideas about the series and the mystery, some of which will be incorporated into future books.  So the readers who become engaged with the mystery on the website will help to shape it in a very real way.

 

The series is set to have eight books in it, each written by a different author.  The first three are all to be penned by experienced teen book authors who each have several great books already under their belts, so presumably the rest of the series will be written by equally impressive names in the teen book world.  Melissa Kantor, the author of the first book, has written several highly acclaimed teen novels, including Confessions of a Not It Girl and If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince?  The author name on the cover of all the books will be the same, however - Stella Lennon.  This is a pen name and, the website explains, was chosen for the importance of the names to the characters involved in the story.

 

There are three primary characters (besides the missing Amanda) and they will trade narration duties.  The first book is told from the point of view of Callie, the popular girl, but the next book will be from Hal's perspective and then it's Nia's turn.  They work together to solve the mystery, but also alone at times.  The story is cleverly written so that you're never sure what's a clue and what isn't (and at first, you're not even sure what you're gathering clues for, but it definitely feels like you should be right from the start).  Clues are everywhere from the story to the illustrations to the endpapers to the website and nothing is too small to be a potential clue.  This is definitely a book worth examining for every detail!

 

The first book in this series, Invisible I, is fantastic and gets you engrossed in the mystery right from the start.  The website is well designed and packed with fun and engaging features.  With eight books planned, one can only assume that more will be added to the site as well (such a dynamic website couldn't stay the same for that long).  There is so much potential in this project and the idea that readers get to actually help create the mystery as it is written is really innovative and exciting.  It's a perfect interactive project for a teen audience!  The ability to actually be a part of the story is fantastic and if HarperCollins starts to incorporate more multi-media content to the website as well it would be a sure winner.  There's so much fun content both in the engaging book and the interactive website that The Amanda Project is really something to check out and keep an eye on as it continues to unfold!