Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Edison Jones and the Anti-Grav Elevator by Michael Scott Clifton (Review)

“You know, sometimes…sometimes I wish I could be more like you.”

Edison Jones and the Anti-Grav Elevator by Michael Scott Clifton is a glorious middle grade/young adult adventure about forging new friendships, overcoming limitations, and battling bullies, both young and old. Twelve-year-old Edison Jones has been in a wheelchair since he was five, disabled from a car accident that claimed the lives of his parents. Only that car accident was no accident. Raised by his wealthy grandfather, owner of LogicTech, Edison has everything he needs at his mansion to nurture his curiosity and natural ability for science and all things technical, but he has no friends his own age. While finally entering public school is a daunting experience because of his disability, Edison discovers something even more important than knowledge: friendship.

When bullies, both at school and at his grandfather’s company, threaten Edison and his new invention that will allow NASA to send higher payloads beyond Earth’s atmosphere both easier and more cost effectively, Edison and his new friends must band together and fight a dangerous battle between right and wrong; life and death.

Michael Scott Clifton knows how to warm the reader’s heart and keep that same reader on the edge of the seat at the same time. As Edison’s friendships with Hondo, Carly, and Bree unfold throughout the chapters, danger seems to lurk around every corner. The technological aspects are fun, engaging, and interesting, and the bullies and evildoers keep the story at an explosive level. No dull moments in this story.

Clifton’s writing is easy to navigate but in no way too simplistic for the mature audience. Although the story may be targeted for the younger reader, everyone can derive enjoyment from this unique story about an unusually smart and gifted boy who finally realizes that he is not defined by his disability but by his honesty, integrity, and the sincere joy he finds in his relationships with his new friends, his doting grandfather, and his body guard/physical therapist, Carney. That moral of the story is crystal clear, but another moral is that home should be a safe haven filled with love, laughter, and safety. Edison’s friend Hondo finally sees how a loving family is supposed to act, and no other gift is greater than having a safe place to land each night.

Edison Jones and the Anti-Grav Elevator is a fun journey that may have you scratching your head at all the technical jargon, but thanks to Hondo, who insists Edison doesn’t speak like the boy genius that he is, quite a bit of that techno-speak is much easier to grasp. Either way, the entire story will capture your attention and imagination and maybe even cause you to ponder your own unique gifts and the wondrous relationships in your life.