Nick and Tesla's Super

Photograph: OJO Images / Rex Features/OJO Images / Rex Features

Only a week or so has passed in the Nick and Tesla story arc, so as you might expect, things haven't changed much. In the newest instalment to be published, Nick and Tesla's Super-Cyborg Gadget Glove: A Mystery with a Blinking, Beeping, Voice-Recording Gadget Glove You Can Build Yourself by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith [Quirk Books, 2014; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK hardcover/ kindle; Amazon US hardcover/ kindle], it's still summer, the Holt twins, Nick and Tesla, are still 11 years old and their parents are still inexplicably missing, and so the twins are still spending their summer holidays with their nutty Uncle Newt in California. Except, in this, the fourth book in the Nick and Tesla series, we are beginning to gain a deeper understanding of Uncle Newt, and of the twins' two neighbourhood friends, DeMarco and Silas, and even of Nick and Telsa.

As in most of the previous books in this series, the action takes place during the course of a single day. In this book, the twins and their two pals accompany Uncle Newt and his female friend, Hiroko, to the newly rechristened science museum, The X-treme Learnasium. The grand re-opening is slated for that evening, so Newt and Hiroko are putting the finishing touches on a display in the Hall of Genius. This exhibit features animatronic scientists that recreate and describe their most important discoveries for the public. (Although I love sci-fi, I am mystified as to why chemist Isaac Asimov was included in this group along with Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla and George Washington Carver.)

But of course, all hell breaks loose, leaving Newt and Hiroko scrambling to restore order and to suss out the reason for the disaster in the first place. This calamity, dubbed 'robo-geddon' by Silas, threatens Newt and Hiroko's professional reputations along with the success of the X-treme Learnasium's rededication. Almost immediately, Tesla suspects sabotage but she has a difficult time convincing her more cautious twin, Nick, to help her investigate this hypothesis. Eventually, he agrees to help.

In this book, the fearless foursome are faced with a wide variety of potential suspects, ranging from the newly-hired security guard, Mr Berg (who addresses the fearless foursome as 'punks' at one point), the database administrator Mojo Jones, a musician in the overlooked band Migraine Monkey Missle Test, to the executive director Katherine Mavis, who is hiding something on the premises, or the X-treme Learnasium's curator Ellen Wharton-Wheeler, who is ultimately responsible for overseeing the entire mess, just to name a few.

Although the cartoon illustrations are unappealing to my eye, the dialogue is realistic and often humorous, and the characters are finally developing into more lifelike people in this book. The plot is moved along as the twins (and the reader!) build a 'gadget glove' that has its own alarm, audio recording module and white and ultraviolet LEDs. I doubt most of these items are lurking about people's homes waiting for the opportunity to be included into a multi-purpose gadget glove, but they can be purchased at most electronics shops.

This book includes an illustration of the completed gadget glove at the beginning along with the relevant page numbers where instructions for installing each 'gadget' is described in detail. Unfortunately, there is not an accompanying supplies list, which would be useful for those who wish to purchase all the relevant materials in one go.

The Nick and Tesla series are all childrens' 'science mysteries', where they use their scientific knowledge to create gadgets to help them solve mysteries. (Read my reviews of the other three books: Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab; Nick and Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle; and Nick and Tesla's Robot Army Rampage.) Unfortunately, the biggest mystery of them all -- where are their parents and why have they not contacted the twins as promised? -- remains unsolved. In fact, the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the twins' parents remains mostly unexamined until this, the fourth book in the series, when Tesla does finally mention a few of her speculations about why their parents might have disappeared.

This hardcover children's book will appeal to girls and boys and to their parents. It includes a number of interesting electronics projects that will keep the entire family occupied and entertained. The most engaging aspect of these books, for me, is the way the book explains the creation of a variety of clever electronic items and robots accessible so kids (and adults) develop a basic appreciation for the logic and scientific principles underlying how these objects can be built. For this reason, the entire Nick and Tesla series would be a thoughtful gift or a useful addition to a school or local library.

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' Science Bob' Pflugfelder is a science teacher who lives outside of Boston. He also develops experiments and videos to share with his website visitors. He can be found on twitter: @ ScienceBob.

Steve Hockensmith is a journalist and writer who has written a number of children's mystery books. Hockensmith resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his family and can be found on twitter: @ MrHockensmith

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When she's not got her nose in a book, GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She's very active on twitter @ GrrlScientist and lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.