Skip to main content

story identification - Looking for trilogy of kids' books about geniuses living on an island


I remember a trilogy of YA books I read as a kid, but I can't remember the name. Here are a few details, maybe they'll strike a chord with someone here.




  • They were written sometime in the 90s.




  • It was about a group of geniuses who all moved to an island to work on something. The protagonists were the children of the geniuses, and were even more brilliant than their parents.





  • The protagonists made a supercomputer called either Sherlock or Watson. Probably Sherlock, since it's supposed to be superbrilliant. It had an accent, I think. This supercomputer was sometimes referred to as the most powerful computer in the world.




  • Either the first or second book had a big red robot on the cover. Or maybe the cover was red and the robot wasn't.




  • I think another book had a shark on the cover. I think this cover was yellow-themed.




  • One of the adults was a traitor or villain of some sort. His (or her) identity was kept ambiguous for a while, and only revealed at the end of the third book.





  • I remember one line about how their watches were powered by the heat from their skin, not batteries. This was pretty weird at the time.




  • It ended with their supercomputer somehow becoming sentient and helping save the day.




Thanks!



Answer




The A.I. Gang by Bruce Coville :)


The first book is Operation Sherlock, followed by Robot Trouble and Forever Begin.


Amazon's description is



When five brilliant but wacky kids get dragged to a deserted island by their scientist parents, they decide to do what any self-respecting kid geniuses would do under the circumstances: beat the adults at their own game. The only problem is, before the gang can discover whether Artificial Intelligence is an impossible dream of the solution to mankind's problems, they'll have to save themselves from a horrifying death trap -- and the entire island from destruction at the hands of a mad bomber.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more