What would you do if you found out your uncle, the one you were to stay with for at least the next three months, turned out to be a mad scientist?
Nick and Tesla, brother and sister, both eleven years old, get the pleasure of staying with their Uncle Newt while their parents are in Uzbekistan watching soybeans grow.
But their mad scientist uncle doesn’t appear at the airport to pick them up. Nick and Tesla are pretty independent, so they catch a taxi to take them to his house. Once there, they find the house deserted but the door unlocked. After only a few minutes there, they find their uncle has glued himself to the floor in the basement.
From there, things only get crazier. What they thought was going to be a boring summer turns out to be one that is full of adventure. When Tesla loses the pendant she wears around her neck, the one her brother has an identical one to, the one her parents gave her, she is determined to get it back. Nick spots a mysterious girl in the window of the deserted house of the yard where the two Rottweilers that ran off with Tesla’s necklace belong. This necklace means a lot to her, and she is not going to let a couple of vicious dogs steal it from her.
With the help of a couple of new friends they make, a much bigger mystery than the mysterious girl is uncovered at the abandoned house next door to their uncle’s.
While they are making these discoveries, they build some pretty amazing gadgets. Instructions, complete with pictures and diagrams as needed, on how to build each one of these gadgets is included so that you can build them yourself. The instructions also tell when the help of an adult will be needed. Some of the things they built were a robocat to distract some vicious dogs, a way to track a van at night, and their own homemade intruder alert system.
Once their great adventure is over, the brother and sister begin to wonder: did their parents really go to Uzbekistan to watch soybeans grow? If not, what are they doing?
Reading about this adventure that Nick and Tesla made me think about the shows The A-Team and MacGyver. This brother and sister could build tools out of just about anything to defend themselves.
I really enjoyed this book. I may be in my 40s, but I love a great kids’ book, and this was one of them. Full of action that seldom even slows down, anyone who picks this book up should enjoy it.
I got a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. If you would like to purchase a copy of this book, I have provided and Amazon link for you below.
Recommended Article: Nick and Tesla’s Robot Army Rampage – a Review
Favorite Sentences:
His conscience was yelling at him not to abandon a couple of kids outside a run-down house with an exploding lawn mower.
Mixed in with the standard lab equipment was some not-so-standard equipment, including a half-melted Easy Bake oven, a coffeepot filled with bubbling orange goo, and a trumpet, trombone, and saxophone welded together at the mouthpiece.
Farther back, in the darker corners of the lab, was an array of shadowy shapes and blinking lights and things that went “bloop” and “fizz” and “ping.”
“As you sleep,” Uncle Newt explained, “your body heat will help decompose food scraps pumped into the unit, which will in turn produce more heat that the converter will turn into electricity.”
New Words Learned:
dubious – hesitating or doubting
surreptitious – kept secret, esp. because it would not be approved
About the Authors:
“Science Bob” Pflugfelder is an award-winning elementary school science teacher. His fun and informative approach to science has led to many television appearances. Article on Bob’s experiements have appeared in magazines such as Nickelodeon and Popular Science. He makes his home in Watertown, Massassachusetts.
Steve Hockensmith is the author of the Edgar-nominated Holmes on the Range mystery series. Another book he has written is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. About forty minutes away from Half Moon Bay, California is where he lives with his wife and two children.
