Mission Unstoppable (Genius Files Series #1)

by Dan Gutman

Overview

The most exciting road trip in history begins! In this action-packed, New York Times bestselling adventure, twelve-year-old twins Coke and Pepsi McDonald embark on a family vacation you'll have to read to believe.

With the real-kid humor that has earned Dan Gutman millions of fans around the world, and featuring weird-but-true American tourist destinations, The Genius Files is a one-of-a-kind mix of geography and fun. As Coke and Pepsi dodge nefarious villains from the Pez museum in California all the way to the Infinity Room in Wisconsin, black-and-white photographs and maps put young readers right into the action. And don't miss the next leg of the journey in The Genius Files: Never Say Genius!

Supports the Common Core State Standards

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061827662
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/27/2011
Series:	Genius Files Series , #1
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	16,333
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.94(h) x 0.68(d)
Lexile:	730L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Dan Gutman has always been a baseball fanatic. He played in Little League as a kid, and one of the first magazine articles he ever sold explained the science behind the spitball, the scuffball, and corked bats. When he thought about the T206 Honus Wagner—the most valuable baseball card in the world—he began to write honus & me, his first Baseball Card Adventure.

Dan is also the author of the New York Times bestselling Genius Files series, as well as the internationally bestselling My Weird School series.

Editorial Reviews

In the first book in the Genius Files series, "almost-teenager" twins Coke and Pepsi get caught up in a secret society of brilliant kids chosen to save the nation from terrorists. With an abundance of photographs, clip art–style illustrations, and reader-directed asides—"Ordinarily in a story, this is where the author tells the readers what the main character... look like.... But you know what? Who cares?"—Gutman unfolds his story quickly, and, within pages, readers will be invested in the twins' adventures. After learning someone wants to kill them, they set out on a cross-country RV trip with their parents, receiving death threats, meeting bad guys, and thwarting every evil plan, while making pit stops at such quirky (real) destinations as a Pez museum in Burlingame, Calif., and two gigantic balls of twine in Kansas and Minnesota. Coke and Pepsi are amusing (if accidental) heroes, and their parents are the perfect parody of clueless, overenthusiastic grownups. There is no shortage of humor or action, though the oddball brand of danger shouldn't frighten younger readers. All in all, Gutman continues to do what he does best: entertain readers. Ages 8–12. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Dan Gutman is a funny man and a prolific writer and the Genius Files, his latest excursion into early teen adventure and absurdity will likely find an immediate audience. It is not, however, without flaws. Fraternal twins Pepsi and Coke McDonald are super-smart California kids who are, unknowingly, part of a post 9/11 experiment by a mad scientist to identify the brilliant kids who can combat terrorism. But Mad Dr. Warsaw, the instigator of The Genius Files, rapidly loses faith in his experiment and vows to destroy all the brilliant children he earlier identified. Sending his minions out to kill Pepsi and Coke, he does not account for Coke's endless, prank-honed tricks that save the pair from the "Bowler hat dudes" and their freakishly tall gym teacher (Jane Lynch, anyone?). They are also protected by Mya and Bones, the disguised school janitor. Their clueless parents take the twins on a cross-country jaunt in a rented RV to all the odd places that America has to offer like the Pez Museum, the Singing Sands Monument, and the Spam Factory. Getting to each of these off-the-beaten-track sites depends on Pepsi's ability to decipher clues left for the twins as to where their arch nemeses will next appear. The story culminates at the House on the Rock, an architectural oddity in Wisconsin where the twins are lured into the Infinity Room and Dr. Warsaw may, or may not, have met his doom. Gutman's references to Monty Python's Spam Song will likely sail over the heads of kids. For me, the most disturbing plot device in the book is the use of 9/11 as the cause of Dr. Warsaw's madness and his Mengele-like attempt to isolate children based on intelligence. Still, the book is exciting, full of far-fetched facts, and a page turner. Reviewer: Lois Rubin Gross

Children's Literature - Lois Rubin Gross

Gr 5–8—On an ordinary day, Coke, 12, and his twin sister, Pepsi, are chased along a cliff path by a man wearing a bowler hat and driving a golf cart. This is only the first of a series of events in which people, including their health teacher, try to kill them. Eventually they learn that after 9/11, a man who survived the attack at the Pentagon developed a plan, outlined in what came to be called The Genius Files project, to identify children who will solve the world's problems. Based on their standardized test scores, Coke and Pepsi are chosen to be in the first Young American Geniuses group. But before the two can begin to fully grasp this fact, they are whisked away on a cross-country road trip with their parents, stopping off at many wacky tourist traps. Along the way they find ciphers giving them clues to potential attempts on America that they need to try to stop. While this is a fun and mostly funny adventure, it has many plot holes and suffers from poor character development. The Genius Files is only marginally explained and the ending peters out with an attempt at a cliff-hanger. Gutman sprinkles the book with interesting photos and instructions for following the children on their journey, making it a great road-trip novel about offbeat side excursions, but the mystery aspect doesn't quite fit.—Necia Blundy, Marlborough Public Library, MA

School Library Journal

Preteen twins Coke and Pepsi McDonald find themselves battling for their lives while visiting some of America's premier roadside attractions. The prospect of a summer trip from California to Washington, D.C., in a rented RV has the twins underwhelmed—until several murder attempts make a getaway considerably more appealing. It seems that Coke and Pepsi have been unknowingly co-opted into a Secret Government Program, and their first mission is simply to stay alive as mysterious assassins follow them and their oblivious parents on a wandering itinerary from Nevada's Singing Sand Dunes to the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minn., to the rococo House on the Rock in Iowa County, Wisc. Encouraging readers to follow along, Gutman tucks Google Map directions and small photographs into the margins while salting his tale with coded messages and rousingly icky brangles involving the RV's septic system and a giant tank of liquefied SPAM, along with his usual generous measures of quick action and snarky repartee. He also leaves the McDonalds with at least 1,000 more miles of giant statues and other local wonders to visit—so stay tuned for Part Two. (Adventure. 10-12)

Kirkus Reviews