Sammy Baker receives a special gift from his grandpa for his twelfth birthday: an ancient Royal typewriter. Sammy is perplexed. Why would he ever type on this thing? He has a brand-new Apple laptop! But his grandfather urges him to use the typewriter to write an essay on the Great Depression-he and his family struggled through those rough years in the 1930s-for an English assignment. He suspects that Sammy will "get a feel for those hard times," and he thinks a straight A is a real possibility. Reluctantly, Sammy complies, but his grandfather's insistence bewilders him. Why must he use this old typewriter? Why the Great Depression? He'd much rather take on an easier topic, such as the1969 moon landing. And his grandpa's mysterious predictions confuse him even more: "Once those fingers of yours start flying over the keys, you can't stop 'em. Take you to all sorts of places."