Monday, August 28, 2017

The Genius Files: Never Say Genius (#2) by Dan Gutman

Title: The Genius Files:  Never Say Genius (#2)
Author: Dan Gutman
Read by: Michael Goldstrom
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Length: Approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes (5 CDs)
Source: Kewaunee Public Library – Thank-you!

The McDonalds epic trip across America continues in The Genius Files:  Never Say Genius.  Coke and Pepsi McDonald have been selected to be in a top secret “genius files” program for super smart kids.  As secret (even from their parents) government agents, they will get $1,000,000 as an adult graduating out of the program . . . or so they thought. Discovering that the one million dollars will be split up amongst all members of the genius files, an evil villain, Archie Clone, is eliminating all other kids in the genius files so he can be the sole collector of the million.

The McDonalds trip starts right where book one left off, in Wisconsin, and continues to Washington DC.   We listened to the majority of this audiobook on our family trip to Michigan and back and finished it up while back to school shopping.  My 11 and 9 year old sons had read the first book this past school year as part of the Kewaunee Library youth book club and had enjoyed it.  The kids loved book two, especially my 9 year old son Daniel.  He now has an obsession with visiting places that were highlighted in the first two books, in particular The House on the Rock in Wisconsin.  He liked the humor and the adventure.  A lot of the humor for me at least is when Coke and Pep tell their parents exactly what is going on and then are met with a chuckle from their parents who are sure they are making it all up.  The book ended with a cliff hanger.  We’ll be checking out the audiobook of book #3 for our next family trip!

The narrator was excellent in this audiobook with great voices for all of the characters.  My only annoyance was that he read out the web address each time one was mentioned in the book. I think for the audiobook it would be okay just to say go to Google Maps and type this in.


Overall, Never Say Genius was an entertaining book for the entire family and a great audiobook for a family trip!

2 comments:

  1. Wonderful review, Laura! It sounds like your family really enjoyed this audio book. I have been away but am back to blogging again. :)

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  2. I'm glad your back to blogging again, although I hope you enjoyed your time away!

    It's fun to listen to audiobooks as a family!

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