Book Description

Clementine grabbed Nero's arm as they tiptoed through the dark room. "Do you hear footsteps?" Nero listened. "That's not footsteps. That's...slurping!" When Nero and his family go to help their relatives harvest their top-secret genetically engineered house-sized vegetables, he expects to sleep in a pumpkin house. He doesn't expect to be given rutabaga pie to eat. Isn't a rutabaga a kind of turnip? Or to encounter vegetables with spikes, teeth and sword leaves, or a broccoli-headed alien that tries to buck him off its branch. He certainly doesn't expect to find a Martian vegetable with a sliding front door, or a crawly, underground weapon about to devour the garden. It's a good thing he has his trusty Wonder-Gizmo along. Every time he opens it up he finds something new. It has an arrow, a claw tool with fold-out fingers, night-vision goggles, and a bug zapper. Even a coward can be brave with an awesome gadget like this. Until things go terribly wrong, and Nero has to confront his deepest fears all by himself. He will need all the courage he has, and lots more he doesn't, to save the garden, and his family, from a slithery, slimy fate. Ages 8-11 with STEM elements of aquifers, garden plants and pests, and themes of family, friendship lost and restored, courage and environment. Comes with Creative Writing Ideas for the classroom and a home-tested recipe for Twig's Kohlrabi Chocolate Chip Cookies. Illustrations by Jolyn Michaelis. Perfect for fans of Bloom (Kenneth Oppel), Music for Tigers (Michelle Kadarusman), The Astounding Broccoli Boy (Frank Cottrell Boyce) and Beetle Boy (M.G. Leonard). Also James and the Giant Peach and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!