Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor
By Jon Scieszka; illustrated by Brian Biggs
192 pages; ages 8-12
Amulet Books (Abrams), 2014
Frank Einstein loves figuring out how the world works by
creating household contraptions that are part science, part imagination, and
definitely unusual – at least that’s how the book jacket introduces this book.
But Frank wants to build something grander than a toaster
and more intricate than his Rube-Goldberg alarm clock. He’s busy building a robot
that learns to learn – or, in the parlance of I. Robot, a robot with artificial
intelligence. But one that still follows Asimov’s three rules of robotics.
But what he really wants to do is build something awesome
enough to win the Midville Science Prize and maybe save Grandpa’s Fix-It shop.
With Klink and Klank (robots, not car guys) and a lot of
work, Frank develops an antimatter motor. But evil-genius T. Edison steals the
smartbots for his own nefarious purposes. If you know nothing about subatomic
particle physics or Higgs-Boson, never fear. All you need to know is that this
book is full of science fiction adventure that will keep you turning pages till
the end.
Even science fiction books have back matter. This one has Robot
notes at the end and some bad robot jokes, plus some graph paper to sketch your
own designs for smart bots – or whatever you plan to build for the school
science fair.
Today we're joining other bloggers at the Marvelous Middle Grade Monday Round-up over at Shannon Messenger's blog. Review copy provided by publisher.
