What’s The Smartest Kid in the Universe about?
12-year-old Jake’s middle school is about to be shut down–unless Jake and his friends can figure out how to save it. When Jake spies a bowl of jellybeans at the hotel where his mom works, he eats them. But those weren’t just jellybeans, one of the scientists at his mom’s conference is developing the world’s first ingestible information pills. And THAT’S what Jake ate.
Before long, Jake is the smartest kid in the universe. But the pills haven’t been tested yet. And when word gets out about this new genius, people want him. The government. The mega corporations. Not all of them are good people! Can Jake navigate the ins and outs of his newfound geniusdom (not to mention the ins and outs of middle school) and use his smarts to save his school? BONUS! Includes extra brainteasers to test your smarts!
Chris Grabenstein has to be one of the best middle-grade novelists there is, and that reputation will be further cemented by the release of The Smartest Kid in the Universe. Grabenstein excels at writing stories that are both zany and funny but with heart, too. That’s evidenced in The Smartest Kid in the Universe in the way that Jake cares about his sister, his friends, and his school – and the crazy way in which he learns to care about these things.
Most books that are this far out feature potty humor and are poorly written in grammatical terms, but Grabenstein’s ability to create fun puns that kids will understand, as well as to use situational humor, elevate his books far above other in the genre. His clean, smart writing style allows his work to be used as a mentor text for kids who are looking for examples of great writing to emulate. The Smartest Kid in the Universe does this exceptionally well, because while Grabenstein does come dangerously close to throwing some rotten humor into the mix, he also stirs in a great deal of trivia, history, and vocabulary. He uses these things in a natural way, as he does in his Lemoncello books, so that kids will be learning without even realizing it.
The story’s very premise is fun: and how many exhausted kids these days wouldn’t be interested in learning without having to put in endless hours of hard work? I like the way that Grabenstein created a kid-friendly story with real value.
Still, one of the very best parts of any Grabenstein book is, for me, the inherent character lesson. He always includes a great ‘moral of the story’ that comes with an example of how one should be. While The Smartest Kid in the Universe isn’t entirely missing that, the plot does leave one ethical question unanswered to which I would have loved to see some sort of resolution reached.
Or, perhaps, there’s a sequel coming – because that, too, would be a great way to handle it, and then we could dig further into the world of Jake, The Smartest Kid in the Universe. That would be a very good thing.
Middle-grade readers are going to love The Smartest Kid in the Universe – and their teachers will, too.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
