 | Saved by the smell (My Mad Scientist Mom) Author: Lerner, Jarrett | |
| Price: $6.55 | ||
Summary:
Ari's life is filled with school, video games, and his pet turtle, Fred, but his mom is a mad scientist--or big-hearted genius, as Ari says--who strives to make people's lives better by solving problems that other scientists usually overlook. When one of Mom's experiments ends up in an explosion of mounds and mounds of dirty laundry, she devises a time portal to fix things.
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (01/15/25)
School Library Journal (02/01/25)
Booklist (02/01/25)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 02/01/2025 Ari Fingerman's unconventional single mom's dedication to concocting labor-saving devices can really lead her astray. Why, she argues, get a washing machine for the household’s towering heap of stinky clothes when her newly fashioned time portal will make it easy to fetch them from the past before they were worn? The fact that Ari’s T-shirt is smelly enough to drive off a hungry dinosaur when calibration issues temporarily send him—with his mother and his pet turtle, Fred—back to the Cretaceous Period may be lucky, but it really highlights the urgency of the laundry problem. Fortunately, Lerner provides a solution in Mr. Jakes, a solitary neighbor with an obvious crush on Ari’s mom. He not only happily hauls off all the disgusting duds to his own laundry room but dishes up delectable oatmeal-raisin cookies to boot. (Looks like a keeper!) Less-practiced readers will appreciate the short chapters, widely spaced narrative lines, and sketchy cartoon spot drawings; the mix of gross and sly tongue-in-cheek humor in this projected series kickoff lends broader appeal. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.
