Nikki Tesla and the Traitors of the Lost Spark (Elements of Genius #3): Guest review

 This review was written by teacher Elizabeth Cook.

Written by Jess Keating

Illustrated by Lissy Marlin

Scholastic

978-1-338614763

288 pp.

Ages 8-12

July 2020

If I told you this book was about an elite team of individuals who travelled the world to defeat evil, you might imagine a team of expertly-trained adults with many weapons at their disposal. You would be wrong. This book is about a group of seven kids from the Genius Academy.  All seven students had been sent to the Genius Academy because of their unbridled talents and who, along with Nikki’s pet ferret Pickles, take on secret missions to save the world from relentless villains.

The protagonist and newest recruit is Nikki Tesla, a fabulous inventor with a scientific brain. She joined the other six academy students a year earlier after she blew up her bedroom with her death ray invention and chose the Genius Academy over prison.  The rest of the team includes: Bert Einstein, a visionary; Adam “Mo” Mozart, a musical prodigy; Mary Shelley who is the literary mind of the group; Charlie Darwin, a biologist specializing in animals; Grace O’Malley, the group's leader and a real people person; and Leo da Vinci, the multi-talented polymath and Nikki’s crush. 

From Nikki Tesla and the Traitors of the Lost Spark by Jess Keating, illus. by Lissy Marlin

At the beginning of this third book in the series, Nikki is enjoying her well-deserved vacation in Costa Rica. She has had a busy and adventure-filled first year at the Genius Academy: travelling the world, flying planes, and fighting evil masterminds. However, her break is short-lived with the arrival of her Genius Academy friends who whisk her off on their next mission: to stop a nasty virus (nicknamed SPARK) from being released and causing devastating consequences to mankind. (Pretty apropos, don’t you think?) Nikki and her Genius Academy friends travel to England to track down V, the villain responsible for SPARK. Nikki and the Genius Academy students must save the world from the SPARK virus while evading the diligent MI6 secret agents who think they are the culprits who have blown up the Tower of London...all in a day’s work for these child prodigies!

What I love about the Elements of Genius series is that, outside of being quirky geniuses, the characters are so relatable. Every time Nikki acts on impulse or regrets what she just said, I can feel the red starting to rise in my own cheeks. She has flaws and is very real, still developing as a character which readers will have witnessed through the three books in the series. We learned a lot about her past in the earlier books, Nikki Tesla and the Ferret-Proof Death Ray (2019) and Nikki Tesla and the Fellowship of the Bling (2020) but this book allows us to get to know a bit more about some of the other Genius Academy students. We also get to meet another child genius, Arthur Conan Doyle, a master of deduction, who doesn’t attend the Academy despite being offered a spot many years ago. Learning more about these characters helps us better understand their motivations and behaviour. It is also interesting to see how the introduction of a new child genius works, or doesn’t work, with an established team who are trying to save the world. 

I am a big fan of Jess Keating’s work. In addition to the Elements of Genius series, she writes excellent nonfiction books about weird animals, inspiring picture books about women in science, YA novels, and graphic novels too. Each of her books is a fun and informative read. Despite my best attempts at internet sleuthing, I can’t determine if a fourth Elements of Genius is already in the works or not, though I sincerely hope it is. These Genius Academy students are excellent role models for our middle grade readers. Each student has their own unique talents in various fields of study. When they work together, they are able to overcome enormous hurdles and just happen to save the world in the process. With its promotion of STEM, problem solving with peers, and self-acceptance, this series has it all.

~ Reviewer Elizabeth Cook is a teacher in the Halton District School Board. She is an avid reader and fan of Canadian literature. 

The Girl with the Cat

Written by Beverley Brenna

Illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-531-8

32 pp.

Ages 5-10

April 2020

Based on a true story, The Girl with the Cat recounts a fortuitous visit to an art gallery that leads to an act of activism and the permanent installation of a bronze sculpture in Saskatoon.

From The Girl with the Cat by Beverley Brenna, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan

When a young girl and her older brother go exploring one Saturday shortly after the family's move from Toronto to Saskatoon, they discover an art gallery of epic proportions. Within the walls, the girl discovers a plethora of art which cannot be touched; that is, until she finds a bronze sculpture of a girl in a rocking chair with a cat on her lap. Without a sign about touching, lonely Caroline touches the chair and sees it rock. She pats the cat, and takes in the details of the artwork, from the girl's bare feet and shorts to the ripples of the cat's fur. Everything reminds Caroline of the home and cat she left behind and of playing with her friends. She makes a connection and returns to talk to the girl and her cat, identified as Nina and Sammy, time and time again.

From The Girl with the Cat by Beverley Brenna, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan

I sit beside them and the Gallery breathes softly around us. In the stillness I start to really see the paintings. This room is full of summer. There are trees for treehouses and beaches for swimming. I bet Nina likes this place. Maybe that's one of her secrets. I tell her my secrets in return.

But when Caroline learns that the sculpture is being returned to Ottawa where the artist lives, Caroline is devastated.

It feels as if there's a hole in the roof and all the light is leaking out.

Nine-year-old Caroline gathers up the little bit of money she and her brother have and delivers it with a letter to the director. Though he suggests there's nothing he can do, the next morning her letter graces the front page of the newspaper, and a month later Caroline is pleased to hear that the "Girl With Cat" would not be moved.

From The Girl with the Cat by Beverley Brenna, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan

According to the notes at the conclusion of The Girl with the Cat, Caroline Markham was the little girl who wrote the letter that saved this sculpture at the Mendel Art Gallery in 1966. That sculpture, by the artist Arthur Price of his own daughter and her cat, remains in Saskatoon though it has been relocated with the gallery's collection to the city's new art museum. But this child's small act of activism, championing a piece of art with which she made a connection and helped her become accustomed to her new home, reminds us that small deeds can enact important changes. Beverley Brenna, who has penned everything from picture books and early readers (I reviewed Sapphire the Great and the Meaning of Life last year) to middle grade, YA and short stories, is very astute about getting into the heads of children and giving voice to that which matters to them. This story may be about taking action but at its most heartfelt it's about the anguish a child feels about her family's move and her need for reassurance and a friend. She finds both in a bronze sculpture that also leads her to real friends. Not surprising she returns the favour.

From The Girl with the Cat by Beverley Brenna, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan

With Brooke Kerrigan's illustrations created with the softest of media like pencil crayon and watercolours, The Girl with the Cat is both muted and dramatic. Brooke Kerrigan makes the gallery itself impressively monolithic and the art it houses striking, which is how a child would perceive them to be. Her distinctive art styling has both a grace and a magic that consistently draw me in to the story. (Read my reviews of The Christmas Wind, The Little Boy Who Lived Down the Drain, and Fishermen Through & Through for a sampling of some of my favourites by Brooke Kerrigan.)

I'm glad Arthur Price created his sculpture and that it was there to comfort Caroline in 1966 and that she was able to help safeguard its presence in Saskatoon, but I am most thankful that Beverley Brenna and Brooke Kerrigan were able to share this story about how a small act can lead to transformation.

David Jumps In

Written by Alan Woo

Illustrated by Katty Maurey

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-845-0

24 pp.

Ages 4-7

March 2020 

Sometimes a leap of faith is necessary to pursue that which is uncomfortable or seemingly impossible. With a string of elastic bands and that leap of faith, David jumps in to a new school and makes new friends with whom to play in this new picture book from Maggie's Chopsticks author Alan Woo. 

 

From David Jumps In by Alan Woo, illus. by Katty Maurey

Many children know the discomfort of starting at a new school or joining an activity in which friendships have already been established. David, the little boy in the red T-shirt with his mom in the blue skirt in the bottom right of the above illustration, undoubtedly feels small and insignificant. He knows no one at this school.  When recess comes, everyone gravitates to their favourite activities, whether in groups, or pairs, or by themselves. He tries to approach a couple of kids playing video-games or reading books, but they are in their own worlds and don't even hear him.

From David Jumps In by Alan Woo, illus. by Katty Maurey

Though David is starting to get nervous that maybe no one would play with him, he finds some classmates playing hopscotch, a game like elastic skip which requires balance, jumping and chanting, so,with blushing cheeks, he approaches them. 

"Hey," he said shyly. "I'm David.

Do you want to play elastic skip?"

They ask how the game goes and he demonstrates. And with that a new world of play is created.

From David Jumps In by Alan Woo, illus. by Katty Maurey

I'm so pleased to know that kids still play this game though when I was growing up it was called jumpsies. Still it's a great game that requires a minimum of equipment that can be stored in a pocket and played just about anywhere you have three kids (although we sometimes used chair legs if we were alone). Play will always bring children together and I applaud David and author Alan Woo for reminding everyone that making new friends, or at least playmates, may just require taking that first step in asking. Of course that first step may be the hardest, as it seemed to be for David, but the payoff–connecting and having fun with his peers–makes it all worthwhile.

Montreal illustrator Katty Maurey recreates the isolation that David feels at his new school, by making him just one more small child in a sea of children. She may make them all unique in their skin, hair, clothes, abilities and interests, ensuring a diversity that reflects all children, but they are many and David is just one. He doesn't want to stand out, as many children are loathe to do; he just wants to fit in and have play fun. With the very colourful but subtle illustrations, digitally rendered, Katty Maurey brings Alan Woo's David from the outskirts of his new life to a foothold for a game he loves and for his classmates.

From David Jumps In by Alan Woo, illus. by Katty Maurey

Trail of Crumbs

Written by Lisa J. Lawrence

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-2121-7

247 pp.

Ages 13+

2019

We all hope a trail of crumbs will lead us to safety and maybe even home, but both are sadly elusive for seventeen-year-old Greta in this young adult novel of trauma and abandonment.
 
After their mom died from breast cancer when Greta and her twin brother Ash were just eight, their dad Roger fell apart. He lost his truck driving job because of a DUI, had to sell the house and sent the kids to live with a relative. Though he remarried and got the kids back, the turmoil of their lives becomes one of emotional abuse with their stepmom Patty always yelling, complaining and blaming Greta and Ash for everything. After another altercation, Patty convinces Roger to abandon the kids and they sneak off in the night.

Seven years he'd made excuses for Patty's anger, tried to make them share the blame in her tornado of drama. They'd been kids–imperfect, noisy, messy. He'd played middle man between a wolf and two sheep, trying to justify why the wolf always tore at them. Trying to please that rabid wolf. (pg. 89-90)

Left alone in their cold basement apartment in Edmonton with limited money of their own, Greta and Ash consider their options. A plan to confront their father falls apart, though it does find them a new ally in a classmate and neighbour, Nate. They look for jobs. They approach their landlord, Elgin Doyle, an older man who lives in the upper part of the house, about deferring the rent but instead he offers to let them stay in a spare room he has in return for chores like shovelling snow.

Though initially uncomfortable with their new living situation, the normally-withdrawn Ash seems to come out of himself, cooking with Elgin and standing up for the older man to his hostile adult daughter Alice. But, while Greta grapples with their abandonment, she is also trying to clarify the traumatizing circumstances involving a sexual encounter with Dylan.

She could never make sense of those shards still rattling loose inside her. They dug in, but no matter how long she looked at them, they never formed a whole picture. A grotesque kaleidoscope. When she tried to sort through it, all the colors mixed together until it turned into swamp brown. (pg. 124)

Trail of Crumbs is a story of finding a way to survive the trauma of parental abandonment and of sexual assault. It's about finding family and friends in unlikely allies and trusting those who would support you no matter what. It's not an easy story to read because the trauma is so raw. Even when Greta and Ash try to logically deal with their abandonment, and Greta tries to sort out the events with Dylan, you know they're just struggling to endure, to get through it, to survive. There is a visceral fear about stopping to give in to the anguish and hopelessness. But Lisa J. Lawrence, who wowed critics with her debut novel, Rodent (Orca, 2016), writes with power and intrepidness, never letting us question whether Greta and Ash are real. They are, as are their problems. They've survived trauma after trauma and keep on going. They don't even know how brave they are. They are their own heroes.

That trail of crumbs may be elusive and often invisible, but I was consoled that Greta and Ash found sufficient to keep them bound as siblings with enough left over to lead them to a new support family.

The Lost Scroll of the Physician (Secrets of the Sands, Book 1)

Written by Alisha Sevigny

Dundurn

978-1-45974-429-5

272 pp.

Ages 8-13

January 2020

He looks up at me, expression bleak. "There is nothing you can do, Sesha. This is an ailment you cannot treat."

     "I will treat it," I say firmly. "And I swear by the gods I will find that scroll and see you cured." (pg. 129)

 

Thirteen-year-old Sesha  and her younger brother Ky have been fending for themselves for a month since the fire that killed their parents. Because Sesha had seen guards with the pharaoh's crest running from the burning house, Sesha believes Pharaoh had had their father Ay, Great Physician and Chief Scribe, killed, perhaps because of his last project. Though she doesn't know much about the scroll he'd been transcribing, she remembers hearing that it was by the Great Imhotep and might have great implications for the world but also save Ky's life.

When they are returned to the palace, Ky is delighted to be reunited with his friend Prince Tutan, Pharaoh's young son, but Sesha is wary of all, including Pharaoh; Wujat, their father's friend and Grand Vizier and former High Priest; the new physician Ahmes; Queen Anatmoset; the priest Nebifu; and Scribe Sebau. In her determination to find the scroll, she requests permission to study the medical arts with other scribes at the temple where her father's chambers had been. Pharaoh agrees on the assurance that she will search for the missing scroll which he claims to be an invaluable treatise for military surgery.

With the help of Pharaoh's daughter Merat and a scribe trainee, Paser, and some other unlikely allies, Sesha searches for the scroll so that she may help Ky, who has seizures because of an excess of fluid in his skull, but also disprove the rumour that her father was a heretic who believed only in practical medicine and not the magic of their gods, and learn who was responsible for their parents' deaths. But with those who have already harmed her parents determined to stop her efforts, Sesha must rely on her instincts and learned skills to persist in her quest if she is to save the only family she has left.

Set in Ancient Egypt, a unique culture rife with intrigue and peculiarities–the mummification Sesha witnesses as part of her studies is especially distinctive–The Lost Scroll of the Physician is at its heart a spellbinding mystery. Central to the story, of course, the plot to locate the missing scroll which could be anywhere or already discovered and perhaps destroyed. And with so many characters at the palace, at the temple and in the countryside, Alisha Sevigny has created a story that is embedded with treasonous villains, colourful happenings–from snake charming to a hippo hunt and the Festival of the Inundation–and a setting rich in history and ethos. Ancient Egypt becomes part of the story, not just the setting, giving readers even more story as they follow Sesha and her allies into the mastaba in which her parents are interred, or into the embalming room, or through the market where Ky steals food. The Lost Scroll of the Physician will delight middle grade readers with its history, its setting and, most of all, its gripping adventure and mystery which, though resolved, offers more to come.

With the release of The Desert Prince, Book 2 in the Secrets of the Sands series, slated for this September, we don't have long to wait until we get to accompany Sesha and her new friends on a new mission away from Thebes and undoubtedly into more danger and in conflict with new adversaries. 

Switchback: Guest review

This review was written by teacher Elizabeth Cook.

Written by Danika Stone 

Swoon Reads

978-1250221650

320 pp.

Ages 12-18
2019

Warning: Do not start this book right before bedtime as you will be compelled to read until the very end...which for me was three in the morning!

Danika Stone’s Switchback is a story of two best friends in Grade 10 who are required to go on an overnight camping trip in the Rocky Mountains to earn their gym class credit.  Vale (Valeria) and Ash (Ashton) couldn’t be more different.  Vale loves learning about new topics and going on hikes with her family.  She stands up for what is right against the school bullies, Mike and Brodie, which made her an easy target and a social outcast. On the other hand, Ash is loved by everyone for his self-deprecating humour and corny jokes (“Hey, Vale.  You know how trees get onto the internet?  They log on!”) but he would never choose to be outside, preferring to spend all day inside playing D&D or video games.

The group's two-day climb up the mountain begins with a small hike followed by a lunch break during which Vale sees Mike and Brodie littering the national park with their lunch wrappers.  Worried for the safety of the animals, she convinces Ash to help her pick up the garbage, which unfortunately results in them being left behind by their group.  Hoping to reach the designated camping spot at Twin Lakes, the pair continue on the path, until the cloud cover causes them to lose their way. As the dark night sky looms and the rains begin, Vale and Ash decide to set up a shelter to keep warm and hopefully avoid the forecast snow. 

The two teens face numerous challenges in the wilderness while trying to find a way back to civilization. Their biggest concerns are staying healthy and safe. First, they have limited food and water, as their meals disappeared with the rest of the school group. Other than a couple of sticks of gum, a handful of GORP (granola, oats, raisins, peanuts), the pair must fend for themselves. They also have to fight off hypothermia–their clothes get wet when the snow comes–and tend to their hiking injuries with only the small first aid kit that Vale had packed. Moreover, the two have to worry about the many animals they encounter along the way. When it is dark on the side of a mountain, every snap of a branch sends a new wave of panic through them as they pray for a harmless deer rather than a larger predator looking for a snack.

This YA novel is a definite page turner!  I started this novel hoping I would enjoy it for a couple of days, but I loved it too much to stop. I had to know what would happen next and read through the night until I was done.  Switchback is a real nail biter and it definitely kept my heart beating fast during many scenes. The story of these two friends trying to survive in the wilderness is a story of bravery, perseverance, and true friendship!

~ Reviewer Elizabeth Cook is a teacher in the Halton District School Board. She is an avid reader and fan of Canadian literature. 

Deadly Curious

Written by Cindy Anstey

Feiwel and Friends

978-1-250252272

304 pp.

Ages 13-18

June 2020

Investigating required a fair amount of questioning, thinking, and rethinking–mental exercises that she found invigorating. But there was a noble purpose to her questions now: solving a crime. What could be more rewarding than assuaging the pain brought on by the premature ending of a life? Yes, Sophia nodded to herself, she had found the perfect way to spend her days. (pg. 99)

Eighteen-year-old Sophia Thompson, first introduced in Cindy Anstey's The Hummingbird Dagger, has decided that, now that her prospects for marriage have dissipated because of family troubles, she will pursue a career as an investigator. Reading "Investigating Murder and Mayhem: A Runner's Journey" with aspirations of becoming the first woman to be appointed to London's police force known as the Bow Street Runners, Sophia responds to a summons from her cousin Daphne Waverley who fears the ineptitude of the local constable looking into the murder of her older brother, Andrew, a year earlier. But a request has also been made for Bow Street to assist the haberdasher-cum-constable Marley so new trainee Mr. Jeremy Fraser, 20, is sent with a driver/assistant Hal Stacks to the town of West Ravenwood.

But with a recent change of law that prohibited hunting on common lands, many locals see Mr. Fraser as an authority figure and are reluctant to assist him in his inquiries. Fortunately, Sophia, who is seen as being a harmless woman, places herself in a position to help the attractive Mr. Fraser. With her irritable Uncle Edward having recovered a knife in the woods, the scene of the crime, Aunt Hazel spending an inordinate amount of time with the Reverend's daughter, Charlotte Dewey, who makes herself quite at home at Allerton Park, and a series of mishaps threatening both Daphne and Sophia, the young woman feels compelled to work with Jeremy to share information and pursue her own inquiries, with her lady's maid Betty in tow. 

In a twisted story, intricate with subplots of poaching, jealousy, murders old and new, and romances suitable and not, Deadly Curious keeps the reader enthralled, never knowing whether a knife merchant or a local constable or even an herbalist might have a role in the multiple murders that take place around West Ravenwood. Though I may have guessed the involvement of one character–my years of reading Agatha Christie and other cozies has given me practice in predicting outcomes–Cindy Anstey has created a multitude of sophisticated characters who all seem to be viable suspects. From a footman and housekeeper to the local surgeon and even Daphne's other brother William, all are complex and multi-dimensional and present as potential threats. Moreover they all react realistically and uniquely and the reader will feel as if they've been dropped into a Jane Austen mystery with charming characters and reprehensible ones, from the landed gentry to merchants and those in service. And the plot will carry them all from the unknown of a whodunit to a satisfying resolution and even a happy ending and new beginnings.

• • • • • • •

Though several of the characters in Deadly Curious were introduced in Cindy Anstey's The Hummingbird Dagger (2019), readers can be assured that Deadly Curious is a solid standalone historical YA mystery.  Still I encourage all readers to also read The Hummingbird Dagger for an equally compelling Regency mystery with a hint of romance.