Nick and Tesla and the Super-Cyborg Gadget Glove

Description

Build a super-cyborg gadget glove and save the science museum with twin sleuths Nick and Tesla in this zany, action-packed middle grade adventure by “Science Bob” Pflugfelder!

Just like their eccentric genius Uncle Newt, 11-year-old twins Nick and Tesla love science—and they can’t wait for the grand reopening of the science museum in Half Moon Bay. But when someone sabotages the new Hall of Genius exhibit, the animatronic replicas of history’s greatest scientists go haywire. The two young sleuths must engineer their very own DIY super-cyborg gadget glove—complete with a false-alarm alarm, a UV-light secret message reader, and more—to catch the culprit and save the museum. 

Now in paperback, this fourth book in the popular Nick and Tesla series features laugh-out-loud jokes, fun illustrations, and four DIY science projects with step-by-step instructions for readers to try at home.“Authors “Science Bob” Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith have crafted an action-filled story that pulses with kid humor.”—Georgia Times-Union
 
Praise for Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab

“Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab has the perfect formula:  Mega-watts of funny writing plus giga-hertz of hands-on science equals fun to the billionth power!”—Chris Grabenstein, New York Times best selling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

“Real project blueprints are included along with this tale of 11-year-old siblings who create outrageous contraptions and top-secret gadgets.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“…the combination of exciting elements and innovative DIY projects in action yields a guaranteed pager turner.”—ScienceBuddies.org

“[Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab is] a great way to show kids that problems can often be solved by applying a bit of creative energy with some tech know-how. And Nick and Tesla (and Uncle Newt) are the perfect companions for your young reader looking for some (safe) adventures.”—Geek Dad
 
“A mystery, adventure, and activity book all rolled into one entertaining story….Plenty of excitement, with science.”—Common Sense Media
 
“Part mystery, part mad science…the story will leave readers wondering what mayhem will be forthcoming.”—School Library Journal
 
“…a strong start…”—Publishers Weekly

“How do you connect students interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) with fiction reading? Look for science adventures. Get started with the NICK AND TESLA series. Each book contains an engaging adventure revolving around a “build-it-yourself” science project.”—Teacher Librarian
 
“Engaging characters and brisk plotting make this a fun and educational read.”—Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Calculus Diaries and The Physics of the Buffyverse
 
“A promising first offer in a series that offers plenty of appeal for middle-grade and middle school readers.­”—Kirkus

“Suspenseful, funny, and loaded with do-it-yourself robots, rockets, and burglar alarms. Nick and Tesla are an unforgettable new detective team, sure to inspire an entirely new generation of scientists and readers. Can’t wait for the next book!”—Amy Herrick, author of The Time Fetch
 
“A book with action, adventure, mystery, humor — and instructions on how to build rockets and robots.  What more could young readers possibly want?  ’Nick & Tesla’ is a great book that will keep your kids enthralled with its intriguing story — and inspire them with its clever science experiments.  I can’t wait for the further adventures of these fascinating characters.”—Stuart Gibbs, Edgar-nominated author of Spy School and Belly Up
 
“I love the book! It combines science, intrigue and great fiction together in a wild ride for the reader. Nothing tickles me more than seeing a story really charged up with science. And the projects are so much fun! More please!”—Lynn Brunelle, four-time Emmy Award–winning writer for “Bill Nye the Science Guy” and the author of Pop Bottle Science
 
“What kid wouldn’t want to join Nick and Tesla and their wacky family? This is a great way for budding scientists to have fun while exploring the intricacies of physics, chemistry, and more–up close, personal, and hands-on!”—Jane Hammerslough, author of Owl Puke: The Book and Dino Poop: And Other Remarkable Remains of the Past

“Pflugfelder and Hockensmith debut a captivating series about crime-solving kid inventors in the spirit of Tom Swift and Alvin Fernald. But Nick and Tesla give us what their literary predecessors always omitted: blueprints for whiz-bang inventions that kids can actually build themselves (with some adult assistance). Electromagnets, tracking devices, rockets and the like. Hands-on science has never been so cool.”—Joseph D’Agnese, author of Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci“Science Bob” Pflugfelder is a science teacher, author, maker, and presenter that knows how to share the world of science like never before. He is a regular guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Live With Kelly and Ryan, The Dr. Oz Show, and Nickelodeon’s Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn. His television appearances also include The Today Show, Hack My Life, Good Morning America, Home & Family and others.

Steve Hockensmith is both a New York Times bestselling author (for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls) and a Best First Novel Edgar Award nominee (for his mystery Holmes on the Range). He has two young children and lives near San Francisco.

Scott Garrett is a UK-based freelance illustrator whose clients have included Vodafone, Nestle, VW, GQ, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Business Week, Klutz Books, Faber & Faber and Random House. He lives by the sea in Hastings, East Sussex, with his family.Chapter 1

“Has anyone seen Tesla’s head?” Hiroko asked.
     Nick Holt turned and stared at her in surprise.
     “It’s not here?” he asked Hiroko. “Uncle Newt had it just a minute ago.”
     Nick’s uncle Newt was hunched over Tesla’s hands, which lay palms up on the portable work bench in front of him.
     “I did?” he said.
     “Yeah. You had it tucked under your arm when you went to get a soda.” It was Tesla Holt, Nick’s twin sister, who answered this time. She said the words with her mouth, which was on her face, which was on her head. Which was attached to her neck.
     Her arms still had hands on them, too.
     Which meant it was the other Tesla in the room who was missing hands and a head. The animatronic Tesla, made to look like famous inventor Nikola Tesla. Of course, lacking his head and hands, he didn’t look much like Nikola Tesla at the moment.
     “Uh-oh,” said Nick, whose full name was Nikola Copernicus Holt.
     He and his twin sister, Tesla, each shared part of Nikola Tesla’s name thanks to a family tradition handed down to their father, Albert Einstein Holt, from his father, Thomas Edison Holt.
     “Why uh-oh?” asked Uncle Newt, a.k.a. Newton Galileo Holt.
     Nick and Tesla didn’t answer their uncle’s question. They were already bolting for the nearest exit. They had a pretty good idea where animatronic Nikola Tesla’s head had ended up—and why it would be a really good idea to retrieve it as soon as possible.
     “Do you realize,” Nick gasped to his sister as the two of them dashed toward the far end of the Hall of Science, “that we weren’t even supposed to be here today?” They passed Marie Curie sitting behind the wheel of one of the field hospital X-ray trucks she created to help wounded soldiers during World War I. “Uncle Newt and Hiroko finished their work two days ago.”
     Which was true. Their uncle and his kinda-sorta girlfriend Hiroko Sakurai were both robotics experts, and they’d been hired to save the exhibition after delays and malfunctions resulted in the firing of the original designer. The day before yesterday it seemed as though the job was all wrapped up.
     “Well,” Tesla said to her brother, “who did you expect the museum director to call this morning when she found out that Nikola Tesla’s head was loose?” The pair slowed a bit to loop around René Descartes, who was lying in bed looking up at the fly that would inspire him to create the Cartesian coordinate system. “Plus, Charles Darwin had fallen over and crushed that flock of blue-footed boobies.” She meant models of blue-footed boobies . . . blue-footed boobies being a species of seabird native to the South Pacific. “I mean, tonight’s the museum’s grand reopening!” Nick and Tesla skidded into a right turn past Percy Spencer, who was staring in wonderment at a glob of gooey chocolate, the first in the world to be melted by microwaves.
     These were animatronic versions of famous scientists—mannequins, basically, that were silent and motionless at the moment. But this very night they would move and speak thanks to computer-controlled mechanisms built inside them. Because tonight was the grand reopening of the Northern California Museum of Science, Industry, and Technology, which had been christened with a brand-new name: The X-Treme Learnasium. And the museum’s centerpiece would be the Hall of Genius, where visitors could see and hear lifelike animatronic recreations of history’s greatest thinkers.
     Assuming the machines actually worked.CN

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