A PROBLEMATIC PARADOX

Nikola Kross has given up on living in harmony with classmates and exasperated teachers; she prefers dabbling in experimental chemistry to fitting in. But when her life is flipped by a gang of extraterrestrials who kidnap her dad and attempt to recruit her, she discovers he's been keeping a world of secrets from her --including the school for geniuses where she's sent for refuge.

Her new home is a place where classes like Practical Quantum Mechanics are the norm and where students use wormholes to commute to class. For Nikola, the hard part isn't school; it's making friends, especially when the student body isn't (entirely) human. But the most puzzling paradox of all is Nikola herself, who has abilities that no one understands--abilities that put her whole school in greater danger than she could have imagined.

· HILARIOUS VOICE: Nikola's narration style manages to be at once smart, accessible, and laugh-out-loud funny--Eliot infuses his story with a clever, Dahl-esque humor that will entertain readers of all ages.

· SCI FI FOR GIRLS: In a genre dominated by boy protagonists, Nikola stands out. The author was inspired to write it by his teen daughters, who pointed out the lack of girl role models in science fiction.

· HEARTFELT FRIENDSHIP STORY: There's an emotional core to this story that's woven carefully alongside the science and the humor. Nikola starts out friendless and rather prickly, but she winds up making her first real friends--the kind she'd risk her life for.

· ENTICING STEM CONNECTIONS: At Nikola's school, students manipulate matter using Schrodinger's Uncertainy Principle. Sappingfield's richly imagined fantasy elements are grounded in real-life physics, chemistry, and math, to create a story that celebrates the sciences and has the power to excite young readers' interests in STEM.