The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook is Eleanor Davis's kids' comic glorifying science, invention, and the joys of personal exploration. Julian Calendar is a bright 11-year-old who has moved to a new school where he is determined to fit in by masking his voracious intellect, but instead he finds himself (gladly) fallen in with two other science kids -- Greta Hughes, a "bad kid" with a reputation and Ben Garza, a "dumb jock" who shines on the basketball court but chokes on tests. Both kids are, in fact, natural scientists (as is Julian), but they aren't the right kind of smart to get ahead in school.
Together, the three of them form The Secret Science Alliance, complete with an underground lair chock full of marvellous inventions, and they set out to create the most wonderful things they can imagine.
But then the sour old R&D chief from down the block begins to steal their inventions, and the three find themselves embroiled in a caper that requires all of their skills.
Funny, inspiring, and wicked-nerdy, The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook is filled with hyper-detailed drawings of secret lairs and scientific inventions, and handles the idea of multiple intelligences with a good deal of grace and compassion. The author says the book is enjoyable by kids 8 and up -- and as a 38 year old, I can affirm the "and up" part! I'm grateful to Ms Davis for sending me a review copy.
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The grandfather of all of these things is the series called "The Mad Scientist's Club", a tonic anti-dote to Harry Potter-esque and Star Wars magical elitism, and GI Joe know-nothing-ism. Most inspirational. Amazon Link, voila:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+big+kerplop
That is staggeringly good art. Was Geoff Darrow involved in this in any way?
Wow, I love the insane amount of detail and the 'ligne claire' style. Gorgeous!
Anyone else annoyed that the Amazon site seems to offer a feature that allows people to see inside the book but most of the time, it only shows the cover? Hey, publishers; please do learn how customers can search inside this book. It would be mighty nice.
I picked this up for our library. I was expecting a fast little something that would encourage kids to invent and think and make stuff, but it was a really good read as well. Think of the inventor whiz kid from The Goonies, but with better art x3.
Then there's the later YA-themed sequel, "The Secret Science Alliance and the Patent Litigation."
Though the publisher hasn't made it possible to see inside the book at Amazon, the author has made a website for Secret Science Alliance with preview pages at www.secretsciencealliance.com.