Twins Coke and Pepsi know they are smart. What they are about to find out is that they have been tapped to be part of The Genius Files project, in which the best and brightest young people from across the country have been selected to solve the big problems adults can't seem to handle. Only, not everybody is a fan of the program, and the twins find themselves jumping off a cliff on page one to avoid a group of bowler-hat wearing strangers bent on killing them. This happens on the last day of school.

The action scenes continue into summer vacation, even as the twins travel cross county with their parents to attend their Aunt Judy's wedding in Washington D.C. on July 4. Along the way, they stop to visit such sites as the National Yo-Yo Museum and the World's Largest Ball of Twine. This allows Gutman to slip in a rather large amount of educational information about geography and history. He repeatedly invites readers to put down the book and look up information. He even includes instructions on how to use Google Maps to follow the twins' travels. The illustrations -- actual photographs -- reinforce this educational bent.

Coke and Pepsi are likable enough, and their parents seem supportive, if somewhat scattered. Some of the encounters the twins have with both the agents trying to protect them and with the villains seem designed more for drama than for believability, but young readers aren't likely to quibble, given the energy and sense of fun with which the story is presented. This story has an ending of sorts, but most of the goals set out in the beginning -- including attending Aunt Judy's wedding -- aren't reached. A list of unanswered questions is presented in the epilogue, along with an invitation to find out what happens in "Part II of THE GENIUS FILES."

Book Summary

Soopens THE GENIUS FILES. For twelve-year-old Coke McDonald and his twin sister Pep, this summer's family cross-country RV vacation is nothing toget excited about...until Coke and Pep are chased off a cliff, locked in a burning school, and start receiving mysterious messages in codes and ciphers. Mom and Dad are lovably kooky and hilariously clueless, butCoke and Pep are more than up to the task. From California to Wisconsin, it's a race against time to find out who's after them, who's leaving the notes...and just what being a part of The Genius Files entails!