Tesla's Attic (The Accelerati Trilogy, 1) - Hardcover

Neal Shusterman; Eric Elfman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1423148037 ISBN 13: 9781423148036

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2014

Synopsis

Moving into a ramshackle Victorian house after his home burns down, 14-year-old Nick discovers a cache of odd antiques in the attic, where his new friends and he become unwitting subjects in a perilous scientific plan by a devious inventor. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Neal Shusterman (www.nstoryman.com) is the author of dozens of books for young readers, including the National Book Award winner Challenger Deep, the best-selling Unwind and Skinjacker trilogies, and the critically acclaimed The Schwa Was Here and Downsiders. The other two books in the Accelerati Trilogy, which Neal co-wrote with Eric Elfman, are Edison's Alley and Hawking's Hallway. As a screen and TV writer, Neal created scripts for the "Goosebumps" and "Animorphs" TV series, and he wrote the Disney Channel Original Movie "Pixel Perfect". Neal has two grown sons and he lives with his two daughters in Southern California.
Eric Elfman (www.elfmanworld.com) is a screenwriter, a professional writing coach, and the author of several books for children and young adults, including The Very Scary Almanac and The Almanac of the Gross, Disgusting & Totally Repulsive; three X-Files novels; and two books of scary short stories, Three-Minute Thrillers and More Three-Minute Thrillers. He has sold screenplays to Interscope, Walden Media, Revolution, and Universal Studios. He lives in Brandywine Canyon, California with his wife and son.


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Review:

This first book in The Accelerati Trilogy is a good sci-fi/mystery story. Nick Slate has moved to Colorado Springs with his father and brother after a fire destroyed their home and killed his mom. Their new home turns out to be the home of Nikola Tesla, a quirky inventor. The attic is filled with Tesla's inventions, which Nick sells. All these items have some sort of strange power. He and his new friends try to figure out what is going on and get everything back. They discover the Accelerati, a secret group, and life becomes even more dangerous. The writing is fun and exciting and the plot is unpredictable. The action keeps going until the climactic ending. This is an action-filled book with humor sprinkled throughout; science fiction and mystery lovers will enjoy it. Melinda W. Miller, K-12 Library Media Specialist, Colton-Pierrepont Central School, Colton, New York Recommended Library Media Connection"

Following the death of his mother in a house fire, Nick Slate moves with his father and brother to Colorado Springs, taking up residence in the down-at-the-heels house of a deceased relative. Nick has two immediate goals: to stay under the radar at his new middle school, and to make some quick cash by selling attic junk at a garage sale. Goal one is a non-starter when garrulous classmate Mitch takes Nick loudly under his wing, but goal two is unbelievably successful, especially once Nick turns on an antique lamp that seems to draw customers who bid up the prices on the castoffs. When the appliances begin acting strangely all over Colorado Springs and shady adults clad in pearlized suits take sinister interest in Nick, he discovers that his distant auntie had been Nikola Tesla's fancy lady, and he deduces that the bits and bobs now scattered over the city fit together into a mysterious but potent machine. This surely sounds like the storyline to any number of novels already on the shelf, and even Tesla has become a bit too ubiquitous of late, but Shusterman and Elfman have crafted a plot more devious, characters far quirkier, climaxes (yes, there are two) more breathless, and a narration much, much funnier than recent mad-science offerings. Sticking with a third-person narration frees the authors to be as wryly and sophisticatedly witty as they please without compromising the veracity of their middle-school cast, resulting in storytelling as delightful as the story being told. At the end of the first book in a planned trilogy, Tesla's invention has wrought some serious damage, and Nick and friends are off to reanimate a dearly departed pal. If that won't bring back readers for Volume Two, what will? EB BCCB"

After his mother dies in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Nick, his younger brother Danny, and their father move into Great-aunt Greta's old house. Finding the attic full of junk, Nick spearheads a garage sale where, much to his surprise, patrons seem compelled to make purchases. Along with new friends Caitlin, Mitch, and Vince, Nick eventually finds that the items-which all seem to have mysterious powers-were made by Nicola Tesla himself. One of those items, a baseball glove, appears to contain its own magnetic pull, but when it begins yanking small meteorites out of orbit, a shady collection of self-proclaimed scientists called the Accelerati starts snooping around. What no one realizes is that one of the meteorites attracted by the magical mitt is big enough to destroy the Earth. Now Nick and his friends are in a race to save humanity while avoiding the (nefarious) Accelerati. The strong narrative voice propels the well-paced story, and while the plotting is shaky at times, future installments may very well clear up the problem spots. Although they rely heavily on action and adventure, the authors don't skimp on character development: Nick is a likable protagonist; his friends are a varied and humorous bunch. With a dynamic mix of secret-society intrigue, quirky gadgetry, appealing teen characters, and humor, this series has the makings of a hit. sam bloom Horn Book"

Everything changed after the toaster hit Nick on the head. It fell from an attic full of junk in the ramshackle Victorian house in Colorado Springs that 14-year-old Nick, his father, and younger brother have moved into from Tampa. Nick disposes of most of the things in the attic at a garage sale. What begins as a story about an adolescent boy coming to terms with his mother's death-and his guilt about the house fire that took her-quickly takes a turn for the supernatural and sinister as Nick discovers that the items he sold are the magical inventions of Nikola Tesla. And he must recover them before they fall into the hands of a murderous secret society, the Accelerati. The first entry in a planned trilogy, this collaboration between Shusterman and Elfman tempers the scarier elements of Nick's quest with deft, humorous writing and plenty of the ordinary adventures of a new kid in school finding his niche. Hand this one to fans of Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles or Kenneth Oppel's Airborne (2004). - Magan Szwarek Booklist"

This entertaining and often surprising first book in Shusterman and Elfman's Accelerati trilogy is well-timed to take advantage of the resurgent interest in Nicola Tesla (and an omnipresent interest in secret societies and conspiracies). Fourteen-year-old Nick's family has just moved from Florida to Colorado after a fire that claimed the life of his mother. He discovers that the attic of his new house is filled with odd contraptions, and he hosts a yard sale in which dozens of people buy nearly everything, just before a mysterious government group shows up and attempts to claim it. Nick and his new friends Mitch, Vince, and Caitlin figure out that their devices can do much more than expected, like record people's thoughts and display the future, as well as that the items were built by Tesla and part of a war between two secret societies. The authors have fun with a large cast of characters (and the historical record), making for an exciting and imaginative thriller with some skillful twists. Ages 8 12. PW"

Gr 4-8 People flocked to Nick Slate's garage sale to buy up the junk found in the old Victorian house in Colorado Springs that his father inherited. In fact, an oversized stage light shone out into the rain, compelling neighbors to pay top dollar for gadgets, toys, and appliances. The 14-year-old is dumbfounded to learn that some of the items his classmates bought have peculiar features, such as Caitlin's reel-to-reel tape machine that records what she says, but plays back what she thinks even embarrassing truths. Mitch's See n Say gadget predicts the future, and Vince's wet-cell electrodes can reanimate dead insects. Even Nick's brother, Danny, finds an old baseball glove that can change the arc of trajectory to catch any ball or flying sphere, making quite a spectacle at his baseball game. When sinister-looking men in pastel suits show up looking for the items, Nick and his new friends believe they are part of a group of scientists called the Accelerati and the teens must figure out the connection to Nikola Tesla, a contemporary of Thomas Edison's who once lived in Nick's house. Scientific details explain the basis for the far-fetched happenings, allowing readers to suspend their disbelief. The peril faced by this likable group of teens trying to keep Tesla's gadgets safe will keep mystery fans waiting anxiously for the next installment. Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland SLJ"

In Book 1 of the Accelerati Trilogy, Nick Slate cleans out his attic, holds a garage sale and changes "the very course of human existence." The junk in the attic of Nick's new house seems to be a "boneyard of uselessness," but the old toasters, electric mixers, cameras and tape recorders turn out to be lost inventions of a mad scientist, and finding them makes Nick and his friends "part of some invisible clockwork churning its gears toward some dark, mysterious end." The box camera foretells the future, the See 'n Say toy channels the universe, little brother Danny's baseball glove draws stars from the sky, and depleted wet-cell battery brings the dead to life. A posse of sinister scientists is after these objects for their own questionable ends, and if Nick's garage sale has unleashed forces that might end the world, they also might reveal a way to head off the extinction of the human race. Lively, intelligent prose elevates this story of teenagers versus mad scientists, the third-person point of view offering a stage to various players in their play of galactic consequence. A wild tale in the spirit of Back to the Future, with a hint of Malamud's The Natural tossed in. (Science fiction. 8-14) Kirkus"

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1423148037
• ISBN 13: 9781423148036
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256