Book Review: Nick and Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle

Back in October, R received his first Nick and Tesla book from the publishers, Quirk Books. He was instantly enamored and wrote a book review: click here.

Since then, he has waited - rather impatiently - for the sequels. Just in time for the second week of his Spring break, he received the third installment. He read it in a day. Then he read it again. He did some experiments from it. And, now, he's finally willing to share it with his little brother...though he reads it to D from his bed. D isn't allowed to actually touch the book.

I asked R to write a review. Here's what he had to say...

Nick& Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle* 

by "Science Bob" Pflugfelder & Steve Hockensmith

The main characters, Nick and Tesla, are very clever at making gadgets to find the thief. They are also very funny because they are always betting and thinking up good adventures. I like their brother-sister interactions. But, of all the characters, I think I relate to Uncle Newt the best. Like Uncle Newt, I like making creations and a lot of my creations fail. Also, I am also very forgetful like he is.

Nick and Tesla’s friends – Silas and DeMarco –  are interesting because they don’t always understand Nick and Tesla, but they are always willing to help them. That misunderstanding adds humor to their interactions. They are also funny because they do stunts such as riding a bike down the slide and up a mud ramp.

The book taught me how to make fingerprint powder! It's just graphite powder from a pencil, ground with an emery board. I borrowed an emery board from my Nonna (Nonna means grandmother in Italian) and got ton of fingerprints off of things.

I also built a code wheel. See!

It's just like this one from the book...

My favorite quote from the book was, naturally something Uncle Newt said: “I’m not sure they’d believe me,” he said. “I think I lost a lot of my credibility after I called about Bigfoot.” It’s funny because Uncle Newt was calling to say that he found evidence that Bigfoot was fake. But the police misunderstood and thought he was saying that he believed in Bigfoot. It was all a comedy of errors.

My favorite scene was when they were in the Newtmobile during a car chase, pursuing a spy suspect. I liked the action of the high-speed car chase and the suspense of trying to catch the spy. 

I have to say that this was my favorite book of all three. I liked the mystery and I really enjoyed the secret aspect to the book. I didn’t know who was the spy or what would happen next. I especially liked all of the spy gadgets that I got to build. And I loved the way the book ended with the SBSP (space-based solar power) because I’m interested in solar power. I can’t wait for the next book. When is it coming?

*Note: we did receive a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of reviewing it. All opinions are 100% accurate and our own.