TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING LAB -- Victor Appleton II

Grosset & Dunlap -- hc
New York -- ©1954 -- 208pp

illustrated by Graham Kaye

Tom Swift, Jr., son of the original Tom Swift, in his first book adventure. With a newly deisgned "Flying Lab," Tom and crew go to South America to look for a rare, secret deposit of uranium, before a band of rebels finds it. Kidnapping and aeronautic maneuvering punctuate the plot in this book.

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I've read this book out loud twice now, once to each of my sons. They love the story, even though some of the "science" is beyond their ken. I imagine that a young, boy genius inventor is always a favorite of young boys.

The only really disappointing part of this book, for me, was the hint of extra-terrestrial communication. It is highly suggested that a group of scientists from Mars are trying to contact the Swifts, and that we are to keep reading the series to find out when that contact is made.

As much as I like science fiction, I was hoping that this series would stay "inventive" rather than sci-fi.