Tom Swift Inventors’ Academy 2 – The Sonic Breach

Victor Appleton's The Sonic Breach is the second Tom Swift Inventors' Academy book, a school mystery for 9 year olds about a battle robot and a phone alarm that's silent to grown-ups.

What happens

Tom's dad founded the Swift Academy of Science and Technology, so everyone assumes Tom gets special treatment. (He really, really doesn't want it.) In robotics, his team are building a fighting robot called the Choppa. It has three axe-shaped hammers and a hidden speaker that shouts "Get to za Choppa!" in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.

Its first practice match is a disaster. The Choppa stops listening to its controls, zooms out of the gym and ends up attacking the caretaker's floor polisher.

Meanwhile the teachers have gone quiz mad, with three or four pop quizzes a day. Then a new app called Pop Chop appears. When one class gets a surprise quiz, the app warns the next class with a high-pitched ringtone that most grown-ups can't hear.

Is that cheating? Tom isn't sure. Noah says no. Sam says it absolutely is. Tom refuses at first, then downloads it late one night anyway. The real trouble starts when someone takes the app over and uses it to break the rules, and the teachers start punishing everybody for it.

Tom tells the story himself, in a chatty, jokey voice full of "you know what?" and useless facts about Napoleon. There's LOTS of real building detail too, from bungee cords holding the circuit board in place to foam crumple zones. If your reader takes things apart to see how they work, they'll love that side of it.

The four friends are the heart of it. Noah, Sam, Amy and Tom (the Formidable Foursome, as his dad calls them) argue about the app properly, and nobody is made to look stupid for their side. It's a good one for talking about where the line is between helping each other and cheating.

It's all very American, with "pop quizzes" and a "custodian", but nothing a reader will trip over.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, go back to The Drone Pursuit, the first book. There Tom and Noah fly a home-made spy drone round the school corridors while wearing virtual reality headsets in their algebra classroom.