Nick and Tesla’s Robot Army Rampage
By “Science Bob” Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith
2014, Quirk Books
http://quirkbooks.com/book/nick-and-tesla%E2%80%99s-robot-army-rampage
Review by Debra L Scott, 12/17/2013
This review is based on a Reader’s Advance Copy. The final published book may be different. Nick and Tesla’s Robot Army Rampage is book 2 in a series of 3. The first is Nick and Tesla’s High Voltage Danger Lab. The third, Nick and Tesla’s Secret Agent Gadget Battle has yet to be scheduled for release. Illustrations were not complete in this advance copy so I cannot comment on those.
Caution: This series may cause endless tinkering, an addiction to electronic parts stores, the dismantling of unused small appliances (or perhaps computers), and a probable desire to study hard to get into Caltech or MIT.
Nick and Tesla are still stuck in Half Moon Bay at Uncle Newt’s house after their parents mysteriously disappeared in Book 1. Uncle Newt is an absent-minded inventor and scientist whose idea of a nutritious meal involves a can opener and O shaped pasta, so for the most part the two 11 year olds fend for themselves to do normal kid things… like build competitive robots.
When one of their friends, the son of a comic book store owner, tells them a rare mint condition comic book has gone missing, Nick and Tesla devise a plan to retrieve it from the most likely suspect. The plan involves creating robots that look, and act, like cockroaches. How this could possibly go wrong is anyone’s guess.
The ingenious solution causes more problems than it solves, which means they have to build a bagel-based mail delivery device, then a flying hoverbot angel and then a water propelled defense against attacking robots. Fortunately for us, they leave very detailed blueprints for building one’s own robots and devices… just in case one might also find oneself attacked by robots or needing to solve a particularly difficult crime.
This is a great book for kids who enjoy tinkering and learning how to make things. It does get a bit repetitive at times, what with all the running into trouble, and running away from danger, but the intense concentration applied to their robotic creations is palpable and I found myself eager to learn what they would create next. The imaginary townsfolk of the very real Half Moon Bay are well flushed out so that their dialogue fits well with their character.
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