Ms. Suzy Reads | In Tesla's Attic

Good morning, reading friends!

In an effort to share the greatest books and make this blog really worth your reading time, I have decided to combine the children's and teen blogs into one: Ms. Suzy Reads. Every blog post will celebrate a great book -- and sometimes maybe more than one! I will always mention the appropriate grade level for each book discussed. So I hope you'll stay with me on this reading journey!

Now if you're wondering about the title for today's blog, wonder no more. I just finished reading Tesla's Attic by one of my favorite authors, Neil Shusterman, and co-written by Eric Elfman. This is the first book in the Accelerati Trilogy. 

Wow! And wow! 

So let's start with the title. Who the heck is Tesla? Let me tell you. According to Wikipedia, Nikola Tesla was a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his work with the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. But more interesting (at least to me) was that he was known as a "mad-scientist" type. It's getting interesting, right?

Now that you have that background information, let's talk about the book! The main character is a kid named Nick Slate. (There's a rather large clue already, gentle reader.) Nick, his father, and younger brother Danny have relocated to Colorado Springs from Florida after a family tragedy. They move into an old house they've inherited, and Nick immediately discovers an attic full of old junk. Because they have no money -- Nick's father has had little luck finding a job after his not-all-that-successful stint as a major league baseball pitcher many years before -- Nick decides to have a garage sale with all the inherited junk.

Strange things happen almost immediately in this page-turner of a book. People are drawn to the garage sale in unexplained ways. And they can't wait to buy the junk! Nick doesn't know what to make of it. 

It soon becomes apparent that the garage sale junk wasn't really junk after all. And if you paid attention to our main character's full name, you'll see there are perhaps some connections to a famous inventor, or "mad scientist."

Nick and his friends are on an adventure of their lives, complete with a wet cell battery that does really weird things to a baseball mitt that catches things other than baseballs to a secret society! Yes, a secret society!

You won't be able to put this down. Trust me! It's that good, but I'm not at all surprised because it's written by Neil Shusterman whose books are always fantastic.  

This action-packed adventure is a great read for kids in 4th-8th grades. But hey, older readers, you'll enjoy it too!

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week!