Product Description

Enroll in Dr. Cosmics class of clever monsters at the Mad Scientist Academy as they solve the greatest challenges in science, in this perfect blend of adventure and explorationits the Magic School Bus for a new generation.

Welcome to Mad Scientist Academy! The first day of school is always exciting, and Dr. Cosmics new students cant wait to get started. After their teacher reveals that their school pet, Oscar, is a dinosaur, they quickly realize Dr. Cosmic has an unusual teaching style. To find Oscar, the class has to follow the clues through the realistic dinosaur exhibit Dr. Cosmic designed and built over the summer. But when a malfunction causes the robotic dinosaurs to come alive, this prehistoric exhibit feels a little too real!

With a mad genius for a teacher, things dont always go as planned. Armed with high-tech handbooks and the scientific method, Dr. Cosmics class is ready to solve their way out of any disaster.

"An informative but hair-raising tour of a rather-too-realistic dinosaur exhibit gives six new students a memorable first day at Mad Scientist Academy. Barely have the young folka notably diverse group of kidlike monsters and nonhumansmet their new teacher Dr. Cosmic (green skin, orange goatee, goggles, lab coat) than the action starts. Soon they're narrowly avoiding obliteration from a flaming model meteor, stepping hastily away from oozing lava, and fleeing a set of robotic dinos inadvertently switched to "Live" mode. Meanwhile, they're also learning about fossils, mass extinctions (mutters Dr. Cosmic "Note to self: turn down the lava"), dinosaurs in various Mesozoic periods, pterosaurs, and the similarities between theropods and modern birds. The scholars are aided in their enquiries by pocket-sized, utterly cool "Mad Scientist handbooks," which fold out into arrays of helpful screens, touchpads, tools, and gadgets. Having filled his sequential panels and full-page illustrations with escalating, destructive antics done up in a tidy style that makes them all the more hilarious, McElligott closes with a thumbnail gallery of the exhibit's prehistoric residents and a link to an associated website. Aside from being, you know, mad, Dr. Cosmic is plainly a colleague of Ms. Frizzle, and the mix of pithy banter, tumultuous field-trip mishaps, and science fact is as familiar as it is winning. Fans of the Frizz will be dino-delighted. Mad fun."Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"Like Joanna Cole and Bruce Degens Magic School Bus series (Scholastic), the use of a school setting, a quirky teacher, and wild hands-on learning situations provides an engaging blend of humor, adventure, and information."

"One of Summer's Must-Read Children's Books" Bookish.com

Summer 2015 Kids' Indie Next List