Wednesday Weeks and the tower of shadows by Cristy Burne and Denis Knight

When two Aussie writers such as Christy Burne (children's author and science communicator) and Denis Knight (Science fiction/ fantasy author and computer programmer) decide to write a book together the result is going to be a cracker. 

Wednesday Weeks and the Tower of Shadows is both clever and funny. Told in first person by Wednesday, the book begins in a year six Robotics class where Wednesday's attempts to code a path for a robot to follow is failing spectacularly. Wednesday is, at this stage, not fully aware that she has inherited magical powers and that it is these powers that are interfering with Science experiments. She has been an unwilling apprentice to her sorcerer grandfather who has been coaching her for years although she doesn't know why. She just wants to fit in with her year six group, try to be a normal girl and achieve in Science classes. Her best friend  Alfie is a cheerful geek.

Unfortunately, Wednesday's grandfather is captured by a powerful goblin-king and Wednesday is forced, out of love for her grandfather, to discover and unlock her magical power in order to save her grandfather and the world. She is not alone though as Alfie and Bruce (a bad-Dad joke, wise-cracking skull) accompany her through a frightening, fantastic quest. Their lives are in peril time and time again and it is only through a combination of luck, magic, cooperation and application of remembered science and maths formulae that the clever children make it through- or do they...

This book will appeal to clever children. It is about applied maths and science- thank heavens at times that one or other of them remembered what they had learnt at school! This is a book that celebrates children's initiative, cleverness, love and loyalty. 

If you are a fan of Nevermoor, Artemis Fowl or the Witching Hour, then the Wednesday Weeks  series will be for you.  The next book  is due to be released in September 2021... sigh! Such a long wait!  

Themes: Magic, Science, Robotics, Heart, Friendship.

Wendy Jeffrey