Shinji Takahashi and the Mark of the Coatl #1 by Julie Kagawa (The Society of Explorers and Adventurers, Good, 2022, HC, 309 pages, Disney Hyperion)

Used in good condition: dust jacket is missing; cover and pages have very light wear; inside is clean. ISBN 9781368068192

"One cannot fight destiny, boy. Even if one did not ask for it. The idol calls for you, and you must answer its call..."

Shinji Takahashi is just an ordinary kid. An ordinary homeschooled smart-alecky kid being raised by his globe-trotting aunt Yui. But when a magical guardian decides to use him as a conduit to awaken its power, Shinji’s life takes a turn for the anything-but-ordinary. Captured by the menacing Hightower Corporation, which is bent on using the guardian’s magic for its own nefarious purposes, Shinji must team up with a brilliant young tech whiz named Lucy and her robot mouse, Tinker, in order to escape.

Together the two turn to the venerable Society of Explorers and Adventurers and its ragtag cast of spelunkers, hackers, mapmakers, pilots, and mythology experts (among other things) to return the guardian to its rightful home and release Shinji from its magic―which seems to be draining his life force. Time is ticking, the Hightower Corporation is in hot pursuit, and success or failure might depend on one small thing―Shinji finally coming around to the belief that he is anything but ordinary.