Illustrations – Anton Emdin
Nelson and Kenny really want to visit the aquarium but the tickets are too expensive. It’s a good thing that the prize for the top four finalists at the regional swimming carnival are free tickets for their entire class. But the only thing that Nelson and Kenny excel at in a pool are belly flops. It’s a good thing Grandma is still an inventor! But it can’t be that easy, can it?
Random thoughts I had while reading this book that I doubt I would have had as a kid:
🦑 Had I already figured out that Dr Kane is Grandma’s son? Has sleep deprivation messed with my powers of deduction so much that I hadn’t connected the dots before or has it made me forget that I already knew this? Also, poor Grandma, having to live with the fact that one of her sons is a psychopath and the other is under their control.
🦑 If spoilt rotten bully and all round irritating human being Charles is such a good swimmer, wouldn’t it have been easier to let him win all of the events at the school carnival so he could represent the school at the Regional Finals? Nelson and Kenny’s class would have benefited, no matter who won the prize.
🦑 They made a pool out of an old sardine can? I hope it was cleaned really well first or that water’s going to smell terrible.
🦑 Toot is the cutest baby turtle I’ve ever seen. I wonder if his parents would mind if I adopted him?
🦑 Where’s Dr Kane? Shouldn’t he have shown up by now? Oh, there he is.
🦑 Hold on, when did they get a dog? Did I forget that too? [Gets to the end of the book and sees the list of books in the series] Oh, I missed one! How did I miss one? [Orders book 8 from the library]
Once Upon a Blurb
There’s tickets to the amazing new aquarium up for grabs and Nelson and Kenny need to swim to win! But their swimming is so bad, they belong in the kiddie pool! Can Grandma’s latest awesome invention help turn these ninja flops into ninja fish?!
Schizanthus Nerd 