EDISON'S GOLD

Threatened with a move from Yonkers to Wichita, inveterate inventor Tom Edison IV, along with his seventh-grade friends Noodle and Colby, gets embroiled in a hunt for the secret of making gold that Edison's double-great-grandfather was guarding from Nikola Tesla. Tesla’s great-grandson, now a powerful, corrupt businessman, is close behind. Set in a modern world with asthma inhalers, text messaging, listening devices and a girl as one of the gang, this nonetheless has the flavor of an old-fashioned boy's story. Opening with a flashback introducing the Edison/Tesla rivalry, Watson engages his readers almost immediately with a school project gone wrong, a runaway, bleach-powered electrified soapbox car that lands Tom's friend Noodle in a school fountain and Tom in even deeper waters. The suspense intensifies with increasingly implausible chases: crawling through air shafts in the Metropolitan Museum, racing through a tunnel ahead of a speeding train and swimming through storm drains into the Hudson River. Part treasure hunt, part mystery and part quest-adventure, this is all fun. This completely self-contained and satisfying story leaves room for sequels. (Adventure. 9-12)