by Eleanor Davis
ages: 9+
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Meet Julian Calendar, your typical nerd. He’s the smartest in the class, a closet inventor. He’s also bullied, picked on, and generally maligned. So, when his parents inform him that they’re moving to a new town, and he’s going to have to start over, he jumps at the chance.

At first, he thinks everything’s going to be exactly the same at his new school, in spite of his hilarious, yet misguided, efforts to “fit in”. It’s not until he meets Ben and Greta and gets inducted into their super-secret science club — they’re all inventors of sorts, and they name themselves the Secret Science Alliance (or S.S.A.) — that he realizes that he has a place and a purpose.

And then the fun begins.

See, there’s this dork of an inventor, famous though he is, who doesn’t like children. And yet… it seems he’s stolen the S.S.A.’s invention notebook, and is actually building and taking patents out on them. It makes the kids (rightfully) angry, and it’s up to them to stop him, since no adult will believe them. The book, which is full of sly asides and notes about science and inventors, comes to a rollicking conclusion with our three heroes saving the day.

My only complaint is that it’s a bit cluttered for me, that there was so much in there it was almost hard to follow the narrative. That said, C adored the book. And you really can’t get a higher recommendation than that.