Ever wonder who was the first kid to keep a wallet on a big chunky chain, or wear way-too-big pants on purpose? What about the mythical first guy who wore his baseball cap backwards? These are the Innovators, the people on the very cusp of cool. Seventeen-year-old Hunter Braque's job is finding them for the retail market. But when a big-money client disappears, Hunter must use all his cool-hunting talents to find her. Along the way he's drawn into a web of brand-name intrigue- a missing cargo of the coolest shoes he's ever seen, ads for products that don't exist, and a shadowy group dedicated to the downfall of consumerism as we know it.
“Westerfield tackles the merchantry of cool like no other YA author offering a witty and provocative investigation of the surrealistic world of marketing and status.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review
Book Sense Book of the Year: Nominee 2005
ALA Best Book for Young Adults 2005
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