Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 01/01/2014 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 Airborn (2004). - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2014 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 - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 03/01/2014 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 - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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