A Problematic Paradox
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in this wild, warm-hearted, and hilarious sci-fi debut about a brainy young girl who is recruited for a very special boarding school.
"It's like Harry Potter, but with science instead of magic. Nikola is exactly the smart female protagonist that the sci-fi genre needs." --HelloGiggles
Nikola Kross has given up on living in harmony with classmates and exasperated teachers: she prefers dabbling in experimental chemistry to fitting in. But when her life is axially inverted by a gang of extraterrestrials who kidnap her dad and attempt to recruit her into their service, she discovers he's been keeping a world of secrets from her--including the school for geniuses where she's sent for refuge, a place where classes like Practical Quantum Mechanics are the norm and where students use wormholes to commute to class. For Nikola, the hard part isn't school, it's making friends, especially when the student body isn't (entirely) human. But the most puzzling paradox of all is Nikola herself, who has certain abilities that no one understands--abilities that put her whole school in greater danger than she could have imagined.
*"A glorious cacophony of wildly inventive gadgets, gags, and action." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review
*"An amazing and often hilarious world that feels like a blend of A Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter, but with futuristic inventions rather than magic." --School Library Connection, starred review
"Smart, energetic, and original . . . Readers will willingly jump with Nikola into the nearest wormhole and next adventure." --School Library Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thirteen-year-old Nikola Kross is a genius and self-described "weirdo," which has made her an outcast in her small North Dakota town. After her scientist-inventor father is abducted by a girl with unusually long limbs and sharp teeth, Nikola is brought to "the School," a town-size institution that educates part-alien "parahumans" (and the occasional human student) in such subjects as xenopsychology and practical quantum mechanics. (Her father is one of its most celebrated human alumni.) The school and its students are threatened by Nikola's father's captors: the Old Ones, ancient interdimensional creatures that seek to destroy the Earth. When the school's defense system is breached, Nikola attempts to uncover who is behind it. Nikola's blunt wit makes for entertaining reading (she describes her father's kidnapper as "a charming young lady... with the arms of a gorilla and all the charisma of a rubber boot filled with refried beans") in debut author Sappingfield's frenetic SF comedy. The school's fantastical elements are inventive and fun, but it's Nikola's longing for friends that forms the heart of the story. Ages 10 up.
