Nick and Tesla's Special Effects Spectacular - Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

Summary:  Bright siblings—and amateur inventors—Nick and Tesla Holt are back for another thrill-a-minute adventure. This time a Hollywood movie is being filmed in town, but the real drama happens when the cameras are turned off. Mystery awaits behind the scenes, and the whole production may shut down unless the DIY detectives can crack the case, with the help of their friends Silas and DeMarco and a fresh assortment of homemade gadgets. Featuring instructions for all-new movie magic projects that kids can build themselves, this whiz-bang adventure is sure to delight fans of the series. Science and electronics have never been so much fun! (Summary and image from goodreads.com.  I was provided a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.)

Review:  In my son's words, awesome.  We're five books into an incredible STEM series that my kids and I (yep, my daughter has jumped on the Nick and Tesla train as well) are loving, and this latest installment is no disappointment.

I have to echo a fellow book blogger's sentiments.  It's so refreshing and so heartening to see a capable, inquisitive girl active in STEM activities.  My daughter (who is as girly as they come) wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up.  Guess how few girl-oriented science activities and toys there are out there?  Very few.  It's getting better, but it's a struggle.  But in this series, my daughter has a role model not far from her own age who is actively experimenting, problem-solving, working through all sorts of issues, and relishing in her own intelligence.  As a mom, there's nothing more I could ask for!

As for the book itself, this felt like another holding-pattern book.  I know there's this big mystery about there about what Nick and Tesla's parents are doing, where they really are, but I want there to be some progress in that front. This installment is a good character-revealing book as for how each of our protagonists are dealing with this big mystery, but as for forward movement, there was less than I wanted to see.  That being said, it's well done.  My kids are already excited to try out some of the experiments -- this may well be the Summer of Nick and Tesla!

My Rating: Four stars

For the Sensitive Reader: Pretty clean.  There's a little smack talk going on, but nothing too terrible.