Customer Reviews

The Gadget War (Kestrel kites)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My 3rd-grade class all got to read this book because it's short and fun. It is on our Accelerated Reader list, and we all loved it!

Genre & Age
Series book. 3rd grade chapter book.

Summary
Kelly Sparks makes points with her classmates because she is the gadget whiz. When a new boy comes to the school, he calls himself the "read" gadget whiz. The two begin a gadget war, each trying to out-do the other. When the pair get into trouble for hitting the principal with an orange, they discover the real reason for rules--not hurting others--and that the "mean" principal has a sense of humor and is a real person.

This is our first book by this author, but it won't be the last! It tells the story of Kelly, a clever third grader who excels at designing and making gadgets for any purpose. She is regarded highly by her classmates and teacher until a new student joins the class -- a boy who not only designs gadgets himself, but almost instantly gets the class laughing AT Kelly. How their gadget war escalates, and how it's eventually resolved, is handled brilliantly by the author. Duffey not only shows creative problem solving, but she adds a little philosophy, too -- all still accessible to the early reader! With humor and thought, Kelly grows up a little and makes a new friend.

This is fun for students and people who read to students, and the plot revolves around a female protagonist who can still appeal to boy readers.

Highly worthwhile and extremely enjoyable, at 75 pages of large type, this is a great introduction to longer fiction for young readers.

While the book does not directly teach your kids any pranks, it gets their creativity flowing. After reading this, my oldest son thought it would be funny to send me an email at work, when he knew I would be giving a presentation and the email title would show up in my lower left corner of my laptop, which I was projecting to a group of coworkers. So while i'm discussing the state of the financial market, this email pops up in my lower left corner saying "Hey, I need my toenail clippers back". Coworkers got a chuckle... those crazy kids!

This book is about a girl named Kelly. Kelly made alot of inventions about 46 inventions, And she is only in the 3rd grade. And if you have a problem Kelly will come up with a gadget to solve it. Then one day this guy named Albert Einstein came in Kelly's class room and that was a problem for Kelly. Albert is a young inventor's camp,And he is going to show the real gadget wiz.

I ordered this book, asked for overnight shipping because of a deadline (the book was needed for a school report) and only learned the day it was supposed to arrive (afte receiving a confirmation that the book was in stock and would be there on time) that I would not receive it until 5 days later! I called Amazon to cancel and they also cancelled my 90 free shipping trial and refused to reinstate it. It was probably the worst online buying experience I have ever had.