Gary Paulsen is the popular author of three Newbery Honor books. He and his wife have homes in New Mexico and on the Pacific.

When Jim Stanton's family moves to Folsum, New Mexico, everyone but Jim is happy. The townspeople are just too polite, and they're all eerily obedient to Jefferson Kincaid, the president of Folsum National Laboratories. Then Jim meets a mysterious girl who lives in the mountains, and she tells him a shocking secret. Something weird is going in Folsum, and it involves Jim's own family.