The Mad Scientist Next Door: A Science Adventure

Twins Emily and Sam are back for another adventure, this time of the science variety. When a new neighbour moves in next door, the siblings get suspicious. Not only does this new neighbour have crazy white hair and big glasses, he wears a lab coat, keeps getting mysterious packages, spends an unusual amount of time in the garage, and is spied burying something in his backyard. When local dogs begin to go missing, Emily and Sam suspect the new neighbour has something to do with it. Using the scientific method, the twins attempt to find out what is happening in the garage. After some (mis)adventures, it turns out the neighbour is friend and not foe.

For a book that calls itself “a science adventure”, there is very little science here. While the siblings follow the steps of the scientific method (which we learn more about in the end pages), this book reads more like a mystery - with a potential crime, suspect, red herrings, and clues - than a book about science.

The narrative is fairly straightforward, and the writing is accessible in its simplicity even if it does a lot of telling rather than showing. Similar to the first book in this series, Emily and Sam: The Case of the Missing Turtle, the two main characters are rather flat and largely indistinguishable. The dialogue, however, is snappy with moments of funny sibling banter. Characters from the first book, including their friend Mateo, and the zookeeper Amira, return in this book for some continuity (and BIPOC representation), but they are stock characters who are only defined by their simple role in the twins’ lives (friend, adult friend). Like in the first book, the garage plays a key part in the narrative, further connecting the two books but feeling a bit repetitive.

The black-and-white full-page illustrations by Matty Mitchell have a Martin Marchenko cartoonish quality with large heads and expressions and provide breaks amid all the text.

Though Emily and Sam: The Mad Scientist Next Door is an easy-to-follow chapter book for early readers, anyone expecting science may be disappointed.