Ok, so, my son LOVED this one! It's all -- boy!
The cover is so weird and wacky that my son stole it from me to read. It's reminiscent of Saturday Night Live skits, with none of the adult content but all the humor!
It stars a budding young mad scientist (albeit in 7th grade) MC who inadvertently creates three human-sized moths capable of coherent thought (and a very hungry 4th creature, which I won't name so I don't spoil it) that share his attic bedroom and tutor him in algebra.
Under the guise of a Science Fair project (and I loved the way the authors deliver the tenets of scientific investigation interspersed with the kids' observations of the weird things going on in their town), he and two secondary characters, a head-gear-wearing girl and a boy who reeks all the time, unravel the mystery behind the deadly crime spree and the poor boy's stench.
And then, it's the moths to the rescue... because moths are just cool, right? Like X-Wing fighters! Need I say more?
Great, wacky read!
This is a cute, quick read for younger MG audiences. The MC is in 7th grade, also, and the mystery also stems from a food product. It features a young mad-scientist MC, his equally eccentric food inventor father, a gentle crush, violent skin colorations, a bully-turned-snake-oil-salesman, and winning the school's science project prize.
