"Pure jelly-bean-enhanced entertainment and a perfect escape." —The New York Times The Smartest Kid in the Universe goes to genius camp in book two of this action-packed series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library ! Jake McQuade is the Smartest Kid in the Universe and he's back to defend his title! This time, he is heading off to a camp for geniuses sponsored by billionaire tech mogul and inventor, Zane Zinkle. Genius camp is not like regular camp. There are limo buses, robot polar bears, and high-tech cabins with high-tech toilets! But it isn’t all fun and games at camp, especially when Jake goes up against the artificially intelligent Virtuoso quantum computer—the smartest machine in the universe—which also happens to be Zinkle’s latest genius creation! It's boy versus bot in this epic showdown packed with puzzles, action, adventure, and hilarious, jelly bean-fueled fun! Bonus puzzle included! "Chris Grabenstein just might be the smartest writer for kids in the universe." —James Patterson "Clever, fast-paced and incredibly funny." --Stuart Gibbs, New York Times Bestselling author of Spy School Here's what people are saying about The Smartest Kid in the Universe: " Clever, fast-paced and incredibly funny —Chris Grabenstein has done it again." —Stuart Gibbs,  New York Times  bestselling author of  Spy School “It’s pure jelly-bean-enhanced entertainment and a perfect escape. . . . A rollicking good time.” — New York Times “Grabenstein is the author of the best-selling Mr. Lemoncello series, and this new volume,  packed with wacky hijinks , will appeal to his legions of fans.” — Booklist , starred review  “ Grabenstein delivers once again ...with a book that will appeal to even the most reluctant readers.” — School Library Journal,  starred review "Grabenstein returns with another fact-filled, puzzle-packed, multigenre romp. High-paced humor . . . Clever, concise, and compelling ."  —Kirkus Reviews “This  amusing adventure  also works as a humorous love letter to public education and dedicated teachers.”   — Publisher’s Weekly CHRIS GRABENSTEIN is the New York Times bestselling author of the Mr. Lemoncello and the Welcome to Wonderland series, as well as the coauthor of many page-turners with James Patterson, including Katt Vs. Dogg and the Max Einstein series, and of Shine! cowritten with Chris's wife J.J. Grabenstein. Chris lives in New York City. Visit Chris at ChrisGrabenstein.com and on Twitter at @CGrabenstein. 1  Twelve-year-old Jake McQuade had never flown a military helicopter behind enemy lines, but it really wasn’t all that hard. Sure, bad guys kept firing machine guns and mortars and Hydra rockets at him, but Jake and his chopper dodged all the incoming fire. “Well done, son!” said the general strapped in beside him. “Just using my math and geometry skills, sir.” “Now we need to go rescue the hostages!” Six pulsing green dots throbbed on the holographic display projected on the whirlybird’s windshield. They showed Jake the precise location of the hostages: trapped behind the walls of a heavily armed desert fortress the helicopter was heading to. A nasty new fireball erupted on Jake’s right. Another near miss. He jerked the joystick to the left. “Warning,” said the on-board computer. “Fighter jet on your tail. Prepare for missile attack.” “Two can play at that game,” said Jake. He punched in a string of code--an algorithm he’d actually written himself--that would command his starboard Sidewinder missile to execute a complex backward, loop-the-loop, boomerang shot that no chopper pilot had ever dared attempt before. “If the next missile hits us, son, we’re toast!” barked the general. “Toast!” “Hold off on the marmalade, sir!” Jake punched the launch button. The rocket streaked away in a blistering plume of white. It arced up and over the helicopter, flipped back around, and surprised the enemy jet with a direct heat-seeking hit to its tailpipe. BA-BOOM! “Woo-hoo!” cried Jake, doing a quick arm-chugging, hip-swiveling chair dance. “Well done!” shouted the general. “Math and physics, sir. Math and physics.” A two-note danger signal blared. “Fish sticks!” shouted the general. “That was our final weapon!” More angry warning lights throbbed up and down the control panel. “The bad guys still have rockets, mortars, and a tank!” “Good,” said Jake. “What?” “Their tank, sir. We’re gonna borrow it!” Jake tapped another string of code into the chopper’s on-board computer. Up until a few months ago, all he could tap were one-finger text messages with lots of emojis so he didn’t have to spell so many words. But then, overnight, things changed. Jake McQuade became supersmart. “I can hack into the enemy’s system data through heat emissions, then use the thermal sensors of my computer to transfer command and control of that tank’s weaponry to me!” “But the enemy tank is a T-26-Z--the heaviest ever built. It’s stuck in the mud.