In this second novel of the Nick and Tesla series, the precocious brother-and-sister duo find themselves solving another baffling mystery. As the story opens, their Uncle Newt takes a consulting gig at a cut-rate amusement park, engineering animatronic figures for a cheap Hall of Presidentsknockoff. One perk of the job is that Nick and Tesla have unlimited access to the amusement park all summer long-but the kids quickly discover that one of the park employees has a sinister plan. They'll have to build a few robots of their own to foil him! Readers are invited to join in the fun as each story contains instructions and blueprints for five different projects. Learning about science has never been so dangerous-or so much fun!
My 12-year-old son is very into science (probably helped by the fact that he attends an environmental science charter school), so I got this book hoping that he would like it (especially the robots, as he's currently doing LEGO robotics). Unfortunately, that was not the case. He said the book was "OK" but it didn't really seem to hold his attention very well. When he was finished, I took my turn, and it was...OK. I liked the blueprints and instructions for kids to build their own robots out of mostly common materials, the story was decent...but I found myself not really getting into it. I think this would be a book for younger age range, say around 4th or 5th grade. They would probably find themselves more interested in the robotics storyline and in the instructions to build their own.
