Review – Nick and Tesla’s Solar Powered Showdown (Nick and Tesla, Book 6) by Bob Pflugfelder, Steve Hockensmith (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Mystery/Science
Length: 264 pages
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1594748660
Stand Alone or Series: 6th book in the Nick and Tesla series
Source: From Publisher for Review
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Super-smart kid inventors Nick and Tesla Holt have outsmarted crooks, spies, and kidnappers, but now it’s time to crack their biggest mystery yet: where the heck are their parents? With the help of their eccentric Uncle Newt, the twins trace the clues to their missing Mom and Dad, scientists working on solar-power research for a clandestine government project. They’ll need all their wits, along with an assortment of homemade gadgets, to outsmart the criminal mastermind who’s trying to turn solar power into a secret weapon. Featuring instructions for building and using five awesome solar-powered contraptions—a hot dog cooker, alarm bell, listening device, model car, and nighttime LED signal cannon—this sixth installment is sure to please budding scientists and sleuthers alike.”

This is the sixth book in the Nick and Tesla series. I am not sure if this is the final book in the series or not, but it wraps up things nicely so it would make a good final book.

This book finally wraps up the storyline with Nick and Tesla’s parents. The wrap-up was neatly done but a bit anti-climatic. After all this multi-book build up I expected the whole story with Nick and Tesla’s parents to be a bit more…well…exciting. In the end it was all a bit silly.

As with previous books in the series there are some fun inventions throughout the book. Most of them will require parental assistance to built; many have electronics and/or solar panels that need to be purchased to complete.

I think this would be a great place for the Nick and Tesla series to end up. The story ends at a great spot and I wasn’t left really wanting anything more from this series or characters.

Overall a good wrap up to the storyline revolving around Nick and Tesla’s parents. The whole wrap up is a bit anti-climatic and goofy given all the build up; but it did wrap up everything neatly. I would recommend this whole series to middle grade readers who love mystery and science.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge