Degrees of Affection

My reviews for the previous books in the series:

One, Two, and Three.

A book with museums + animatronics + instructions on how to build a cyborg glove of your own = AWESOME!

Seriously, this book took the last book and made it even better by adding the elements above. Anything to do with museums, I'm all but guaranteed to love. And I'm dying to gather the materials together to make my own blinking, recording, and beeping cyborg glove. It is too cool!

The story itself is quite good; interesting, concise, and well plotted out. The mystery is decent, set up well and clues are provided if you are looking for them. After the wealth of information on Nick and Tesla's parents in the last book, it's not surprising that overarching plot line is set to the side a bit as we get to see the four kids: Nick, Tesla, DeMarco, and Silas find a new adventure.

Of the characters, I'll mention two in detail. First Hiroko returns, which I was glad to see. This was, I think, her biggest role to date and I loved seeing her interact with Uncle Newt and the kids. I hope to see a lot more of her.

The second is Silas. In some ways, his appearance in this book is an improvement over the others, particularity the third book (see my review of it for more thoughts on this). His "appearance" was only mentioned once that I can definitely remember. Also, parts of his plans became parts of the final plan. And I loved how excited he got over the glove. For a kid who reads comics, it would be coolest thing ever. Frankly, I think the twins need some cultural education and should read a few comic books themselves.

However, the way he gets treated at times and his ignorance in comparison to the twins (to make them appear smarter?) really gets on my nerves. Nick and Tesla seem to constantly look down on him and be surprised when he does something right, yet he gives them some great ideas. This almost stereotypical characterization of him bothers me and I'd like to see more growth, though there seems to be a bit her and I was glad to see that.

All in all, I think this is a great continuation of the series and it is my new favorite book of them, when I didn't think the third could be beat!

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I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in a Giveaway on Booklikes; the opinions are my own.