At some point, everybody has a favorite author, right? Even authors have a favorite author – even if it’s themself!

So, who’s my favorite author?

Her name is Trudi Trueit, and she’s the author of the adventure-filled, action-packed, ever-exciting Explorer Academy series – which also happens to be my favorite series of books!

I first came across her books while flipping through an old National Geographic Kids magazine (which I had received while in South Korea, I might add) while sitting at my desk in Slovakia. It had been a hard year of Slovak school – whether virtual or not – and I was dying to read something interesting that was in English.

After leafing through several pages in the magazine, I found an excerpt for Explorer Academy: The Double Helix, which I immediately read. I loved the sample excerpt so much that I decided to commit it to memory!

Just a few months later, as a late birthday present (which happened to arrive on one of my sister’s birthdays rather than mine), I received the first four books of the series. I remember once, I sat outside our house in Italy (after Slovakia, we moved to Italy) for five hours, only taking quick bathroom breaks, to read one of the EA books. They were – and are – all so thrilling and chock-full of adventure and suspense that I couldn’t put the books down!

The Explorer Academy books are about a twelve-year-old boy (who, later in the series, turns thirteen) named Cruz Coronado. After being accepted to the prestigious Explorer Academy, Cruz travels around the world with 23 other students aboard the EA flagship, Orion. His mom had died when he was young while working on a cell-regeneration serum, but before she had died, she engraved the cell-regeneration formula into eight pieces of stone which she then hid around the world for her son to find. As Cruz studies and completes missions, he’s also tasked with finding the various pieces of the cipher before the evil Nebula Pharmaceuticals can. And Nebula will do whatever it takes to get Cruz to hand over the cipher for them to destroy – even if it means getting him entirely out of the picture.

Not too long ago, the last book in the Explorer Academy series came out. Trudi Trueit expertly finished the series with a startling revelation and yet another exciting global adventure. It was a perfect ending to an outstanding series. As I neared the end of the book, though, I had felt a pang of sadness, thinking that my favorite series of books had come to an end – until I found out that a new Explorer Academyseries, written in another character’s perspective, will be coming out next year!

I would definitely recommend the Explorer Academy series to anyone who enjoys mystery, adventure, codes and ciphers, future technology, world travel, and so much more – or simply to anyone who enjoys a good read.

In fact, you can read a sample chapter from each of the seven books here.

Dare to explore!

Vivienne