Early Review – Nick and Tesla’s Secret Agent Gadget Battle (Nick and Tesla, Book 3) by Bob Pflugfelder, Steve Hockensmith (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Mystery/Humor
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1594746765
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Nick and Tesla series
Source: Quirk Books for Review
Rating: 4/5 stars
This is the third book in the Nick and Tesla series. If you enjoyed the previous books I think you will enjoy this one as well. It was an excellent addition to the Nick and Tesla series. They are fewer gadgets to build in this book than in previous ones, but I thought the story was better here.
The last book in this series ended with a message from Nick and Tesla’s mom, she basically told them they are being spied on. Now Nick is seeing spies everywhere. He thinks the new apprentice that shows up at his Uncle’s house is a spy, he thinks that the cleaning ladies are spies… When Tesla’s special necklace disappears, her and Nick, along with their friends come up with a plan to find out who the spy is once and for all.
The book is humorous and funny, but deals with some serious things too. We learn a bit more about what is going on with Nick and Tesla’s parents and why they got that cryptic message from their mother in the 2nd book.
The plot twists and turns as our characters follow one lead only to be derailed and led down a different path. There isn’t really any character development here. Nick and Tesla have interacted in much the same way throughout all of these books so far. These books are all about the mystery and the neat gadgets.
The book is well written and easy to read and their are some excellent pictures throughout. It seemed like there were fewer gadgets to build than in the previous books. However, I did appreciate that the gadgets seemed to cover a broader breadth of difficulty. The spy cams were a bit more difficult to build and required some special materials, while the code wheel is something pretty much anyone could build. Most of the activities will still require parental involvement.
I have yet to try building any of the devices and gadgets in these books. My son and I were going to try and build one of the robots from the last book, but just got derailed by other activities we have going on.
Overall another solid addition to this series. These book are fun reads that are mostly mysteries, with some science and gadget building thrown in. There are some decent pictures throughout. I would definitely recommend to middle grade readers who like a good mystery and enjoy some humor in there too!
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge