Tina Quark, feeling superior towards her brother and their friend, or in general to the rest of the world, builds the perfect robot. In the process shTina Quark, feeling superior towards her brother and their friend, or in general to the rest of the world, builds the perfect robot. In the process she ditches her brother from the "Local geniuses" collectif. Out of fear of problems with her parents she dumps the Tinatron1000 on Giles, whose mother is a math professor with a big distrust for Tina - justified because of het previous encounters with Tina's experiments, and his easy-living father. Giles gets used to help from the robot, so he gets perfect scores on tests in school, just like Tina. Who looks suspiciously smug about that. His mother risks to become a problem until she discovers that Tinatron1000 is a math genius and she can work together with her on math issues. But, after an incident, Tinatron1000 gets damaged and is no longer perfects, she gets thrown out with the rest of the junk. After a desperate search the three re-united friends find her... just too late. Another funny stories with a bit more depth than the previous two, but still mostly fun and a bit sarcastic....more
Book number 6 and with that we have reached the end of the series - a sad moment. But that is the only sad thing about this book. It is just a bit diffBook number 6 and with that we have reached the end of the series - a sad moment. But that is the only sad thing about this book. It is just a bit different from the other books in this series, but one thing they have all in common: they are really, really funny. This time both boys are banned from the shed where Tina is building a new device. During an evening walk they notice a creature on a church tower - it looks like a vampire. After meeting the priest to whom the church and appending graveyard belong, they find out that the belltower is infested by bats. After Tina demonstrates her bat-repellent, which is a complete failure since it attracts more bats in stead of repelling them, the boys fall back on ancient and proven anti-vampire methods, like garlic. Of course, Tina does not believe in vampires. The boys find out that the person they saw climing the tower at night is a professor specialising in bats. As usual common sense solves the problem, although some garlic in a pocket... you never know. Very funny, animal-loving, quite some knowledge on bat behaviour and of course a happy end. And no proof at all of the existence of vampires... really, none at all....more
After a fiasco with a new device that Tina built the hair of Giles turns orange. He is so mad about that so that he breaks up with his genius friends.After a fiasco with a new device that Tina built the hair of Giles turns orange. He is so mad about that so that he breaks up with his genius friends. At home his loss is compensated by the arrival of his aunt who is coming to visit. After a failed experiment (or very succesfull depending on your point of view) his aunt becomes physically the same age as Giles. But... mentally she stays a 36-year old adult with a lot of bad habits. That speaks volumes to the target audience of the story when she smokes, stays up late to watch television and generally misbehaves. It gets funny when Giles mother starts dealing with het sister in a different way: she starts treating her as an 11-year old child. After a complication at school the aunt wants to return physically to her real age, hence Giles is obliged to hire his former friends, the genius team. Again a very funny story with plenty of action and a form of psychology dedicated to the targeted audience. Although the plot is essentially different from the 4 previous ones there are enough elements in common to speak of a series of books. ...more
The author keeps building on the success of the previous parts in the series. Justly so. This time Giles Barnes is enjoying a relaxing bath when his frThe author keeps building on the success of the previous parts in the series. Justly so. This time Giles Barnes is enjoying a relaxing bath when his friend Tina and Kevin Quark burst in. They have found an assignment for their genius business and of course Giles has to come along, although everybode is aware he is not up to their genius level. Tina has built a bathysphere this time. That happens to be a washing machine with a lot of enhancements, so that the three of them can descend under water in a large but with plants overgrown pool of their new customer. They find dinosaurs and that is quite an adventure of course. Their employer wants them to catch the beasts so she can keep and own them. That is a dilemma: freedom for the dinosaurs or a lot of money for the genius kids. Of course this is again very funny, well written on the level of adventurous youngsters with an interest in science (or something closely resembling)....more
Books that pile themselves up and fly out of a library. That is the start of a new adventure of the Quark geniuses and their honoray genius-friend GilBooks that pile themselves up and fly out of a library. That is the start of a new adventure of the Quark geniuses and their honoray genius-friend Giles. An invisible magician and a very much disturbed librarian form the other participants in this funny story. Honorary mention for the parents of the Quark brother and sister who discover which utensils Tina has dismantled to build one of her devices. Very funny again, the creepy parts not creepy at all because of the way Kenneth Opel tells this story. Tina is the recognized genius, het brother a lesser genius and Giles is seen as having a very small brain (by Tina). When Tina tries to solve the problem by means of a very complex device and fails, Giles comes up with a simple but efficient solution. The stores in this series are fairly short, incredibly funny and great for bed-time reading....more
Giles Barnes moves into a new house. He is not too happy about it, certainly not when his bedroom is infested with the ghosts of birds. Het meets his yGiles Barnes moves into a new house. He is not too happy about it, certainly not when his bedroom is infested with the ghosts of birds. Het meets his young neighbours who present themselves as geniuses. By using a ghostometer Tina proves that the house is full a ghosts. Including the ghost of an old woman who used to live there. She was known to be batty. Giles' mother is a mathematician who does not believe in ghosts and refuses contact wiht aunt Lilian, who does. Not believing in ghost becomes a bit difficult when a ghost parrot perches on her shoulder. The children, especially Tina, try to come up with a device to get rid of the birds. This fails miserably. Finally Giles has an idea although he feels not very confident about it, him not being a genius. A short story, the first out of a series of 6. We meet the Barnes and Quark family and participate in their first adventure. Although it is about ghosts, the story is very funny, almost hilarious. This could easily be filmed or turned into a cartoon....more
The fourth book in a wonderful series of five (although i just noticed there are two prequels). Alexia Tarabotti is 8 months pregant, extremely swollenThe fourth book in a wonderful series of five (although i just noticed there are two prequels). Alexia Tarabotti is 8 months pregant, extremely swollen and should be resting in anticipation of giving birth. But she is again on a rollercoaster of events, trying to ignore her pregnancy most of the time, although she waddles more that she can walk, let alone run. Her trusted umbrella is often used, not so much to slay or at least to incapacitate her enemies but just to lean of and take her considerable weight of her feet. No murderous lady-bugs this time, just zombie porcupines that want to kill her. Under a rain of attacks on her life, clearly to avoid her giving birht to a child from a preternatural and a wherewolf. Her top priority is to put a stop to that. Her solution is ingeneous and at the same time shocking, mostly for her husband and environment. But is seems to work. We have already learned about the afterlife of ghosts, the third kind of undead next to vampires and wherewolves. Here that gets a more prominent place. A ghost a the end of its lifespan, when they can no longer keept their human form, loose their mind and become poltergeists before completely fading away, tells Alexia that an attack on the Queen's life is plannend. As usual she starts digging again in old documents and rumours, all places she is asked to stay away from. So she finds out some very uncomfortable truths. Biffy, the vampire drone that was turned wherewolf in the previous book, cannot adapt to his new life. Another worry for Alexia. She sends Ivy on a secret mission to Scotland, and to make that acceptable, she invents on the spot a secret society, The Umbrella Protectorate. Complex, vilolent, magical, weird science, full of action and lots of witty conversations, thoughts and just great fun....more
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