Review – Nick and Tesla’s Special Effects Spectacular (Nick and Tesla, Book 5) by Bob Pflugfelder, Steve Hockensmith (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Mystery/Science
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1594747601
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the Nick and Tesla series
Source: From Publisher for Review
Rating: 4/5 stars
“What do a pair of kid inventors with a knack for science and electronics do when Hollywood comes to town? Why save the day, of course!
In Nick and Tesla’s Special Effects Spectacular, 11-year-old siblings Nick and Tesla Holt find themselves on the set of a big-budget superhero movie. But someone’s sabotaging the onscreen debut of their favorite comic book hero, so the brother and sister sleuths must crack the case with the help of a fresh assortment of homemade special-effects gadgets. This cinematic saga features instructions for all-new movie magic projects that kids can build themselves, such as camera gear, stunt dummies, make-up magic, and more. Science and electronics have never been so much fun!”
This was a great continuation of the Nick and Tesla series. I enjoy the humor and mystery in these books as well as how creative Nick and Tesla are.
Some of the projects/experiments in this book are more approachable than in previous books. While there are a couple more complicated experiments; there are others that would be quick and fun to do and require minimal parental assistance. However, keep in mind most of these projects do require a parent to help.
The main story in this book is wrapped up nicely, however the over arcing story doesn’t make much progress. There are some tidbits about Nick and Tesla’s missing parents at the beginning and then at the end of the book. This has kind of become the norm for this series and it’s getting a bit frustrating. I would really like to see the main story make some good progress on the whole missing parents issue.
I did enjoy the movie production setting for this story. It was a neat (if pretty light) look at movie production and ways kids can get into that on their own.
Overall this was a great continuation of this series. It’s a fun mystery read with some science, some humor, cute illustrations throughout, and some neat experiments/projects. I would recommend to middle grade readers who like mystery and science.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
