When 11-year-old twins Nick and Tesla Holt are sent to stay with their uncle Newt for the summer,  they expect to be bored out of their minds. But Uncle Newt is no ordinary uncle…he’s an absent-minded scientist with a laboratory in his basement and a tendency to build things that explode.

Luckily, Nick and Tesla are no ordinary kids: they’re super-smart with a brainload of scientific know-how…and a knack for getting into trouble. Before long, the brother and sister duo create their own gadgets and gizmos to outwit crooks, uncover spies, defeat rampaging robots, and solve enigmas of all sorts. But for now, their biggest questions remain unanswered: Where are Nick and Tesla’s parents? What is the “secret project” that they’re working on? And when will they return from wherever it is they went?

Each book in the Nick and Tesla middle-grade series features a whiz-bang adventure that pits the Holt twins, plus new friends Silas and DeMarco, against a seemingly unsolvable mystery. Along the way, the Holt twins invent whatever they need to crack the case, from soda-powered rockets to battery-powered robots to spy-catching booby traps. And readers can not only follow the action, but build all the inventions themselves, because each story includes illustrated instructions for making Nick and Tesla’s projects.

Written by “Science Bob” Pflugfelder (regular guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live) and New York Times best-selling author Steve Hockensmith, the Nick and Tesla series proves how much fun science can be.

Nick & Tesla's High Voltage Danger Lab: When their parents mysteriously vanish, they’re sent to live with their Uncle Newt, a brilliant inventor who engineers top-secret gadgets for a classified government agency. It’s not long before Nick and Tesla are embarking on adventures of their own—engineering all kinds of outrageous MacGyverish contraptions to save their skin: 9-volt burglar alarms, electromagnets, mobile tracking devices, and more.

Readers are invited to join in the fun as each story contains instructions and blueprints for five different projects.

Nick & Tesla's Robot Army Rampage: When a rash of robberies hits the town of Half Moon Bay, 11-year-old sleuths Nick and Tesla are determined to catch the criminals—but to do so, they'll have to build a host of new gadgets and gizmos! In this robot-themed follow-up to Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab, the brother-and-sister duo build four different droids out of ordinary household objects—and illustrated instructions are included throughout the story, so you can build them, too!

Make bristlebots that buzz, hoverbots that float above the ground, battlebots that duke it out, and more! Can Nick and Tesla catch the criminal mastermind—and foil his army of rampaging robots—before it's too late?

Nick & Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle: After foiling a gang of kidnappers and fending off an army of robots, 11-year-old siblings Nick and Tesla Holt could use a little rest! But as their third mystery opens, they discover there’s a spy in their midst, searching for secrets in the home of their beloved (and slightly crazy) Uncle Newt. Is it the new laboratory assistant? The exterminator? The housekeepers? Or someone completely unexpected?

To expose the mystery agent, Nick and Tesla must engineer all kinds of outrageous contraptions, from code wheels and fingerprint powder to spy cameras and burglar detectors. Best of all, instructions are included throughout the story, so you can build the projects, too!