Popco

<strong><em>PopCo</em> tells the story of Alice Butler--a subversively smart girl in our commercial-soaked world who grows from reclusive orphan to burgeoning vigilante buttressed by mystery codes math and the sense her grandparents gave her that she could change the world.</strong><br/><br/>Alice--slight introvert crossword compositor--works at PopCo a globally successful and slightly sinister toy company. Lured by their CEO to a Thought Camp out on the moors PopCo's creatives must invent the ultimate product for teenage girls. <br/><br/>Meanwhile Alice receives bizarre encrypted messages she suspects relate to her grandfather's decoding of a centuries-old manuscript that many--including her long-disappeared father--believe leads to buried treasure. Its key she's sure is engraved on the necklace she's been wearing since she was ten. <br/><br/>Using the skills she learned from her grandparents and teaching us aspects of cryptanalysis Alice discovers the source of these creepy codes. Will this lead her to the mysterious treasure or another even more carefully guarded secret?<br/><br/>The code-breaking and -making heroine of [this] smart engaging novel takes a critical view of the corporate marketing of cool . . . a captivating heroine.--<em>Publishers Weekly</em>