Bound To Stay Bound

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School Library Journal - 06/01/2016 K-Gr 4—Dr. Cosmic and his Mad Scientist Academy students are back for a second outing that is truly out there. The green-faced, wild-haired Dr. Cosmic has invented a wearable weather balloon and a CHAOS (Cooling/Heating Airflow Operating System) machine and is unnervingly optimistic about their success. As will no doubt be the pattern throughout the series, the students must absorb a crash course in this curriculum so that they can save both the professor and the day. Even adults reading the book aloud at school or at home will learn a few things. The colorful comic strip format is varied and dramatic. Not all readers will linger over the occasional info-packed box ("The Water Cycle," "Types of Precipitation," etc.), but the facts are made optimally interesting through dramatic and funny illustrations. Drama, humor, color, and format are indeed the main elements that make this and the previous volume so enticing—along with the occasional "KABOOM!" and "KA-BAM!" VERDICT Science fans and comics enthusiasts will dive right into this, but don't deprive other readers; there's enough fun here for anyone.—Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 07/01/2016 Weather is the focus of the current curricular unit at the Mad Scientist Academy, so Dr. Cosmic dons an inflatable weather balloon Sky Suit and heads into the atmosphere, reporting back on the air masses that generate the winds that determine his course, and on the formation of the clouds around him. His students (a mix of monsters that incudes Frankenstein and a werewolf) listen attentively, but the real test of their learning comes when CHAOS, his Cooling/Heating Airflow Operating System, goes on the fritz and the class has to figure out a fix. As half the students go off to the greenhouse (where it is now raining) and half to the pool (now frozen over in an ice storm), they apply what they’ve learned about the water cycle and the effect of heat on air pressure and precipitation to determine that they’ll just have to destroy CHAOS with a tornado, which they now know how to engineer. It’s pretty much impossible to discuss the Academy without referencing the venerable Magic School Bus and, fortunately, the MSA does not suffer by comparison. The graphic novel format, with tidy frames and several well-placed splash pages, is an excellent vehicle for organizing the lesson, and the orderliness of the visual presentation makes it easy to go back and review material. The send-ups on stock monsters are cleverly played, adding humor without sacrificing content. A page of climate and weather notes extends the information, and endpapers diagrams of the Sky Suit and CHAOS walk the line between science fact and fun. No need for MSA kids to take a field trip: what could be more interesting than school? EB - Copyright 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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