New Releases by Clifford B. Hicks

Since 1960, both boys and girls have enjoyed reading about Alvin Fernald and his Magnificent Brain. Whenever it clicks into action and a glassy stare comes into his eyes, it's time to watch out! Because Alvin is thinking up another marvelous invention.
Maybe it's the Foolproof Burglar Alarm for his bedroom door, or a Sure Shot Paper Slinger for delivering newspapers from his bike. Or a Portable Fire Escape, very handy when it comes time to crawl out the window for a secret meeting with his best pal, Shoie. No doubt about it, as his sister the Pest says, 'Alvin is a genius!'
The hint of a mystery surrounding the old Huntley place is all Alvin needs to launch a new series of inventions which bring extraordinary results. His remarkable inventing bench becomes the scene of frenzied activity. With Shoie and the Pest, who always tags along, there is never a dull moment as Alvin unfolds the most brilliant plan of his career.

The warm, tingly feeling that had been smack in the middle of Alvin Fernald's stomach ever since Miss Peppersmith had closed and neatly lined up her books that Friday afternoon, had grown bigger as he and Shoie walked home from school. Now, here, in his hand, was the reason why! Alvin's sixth sense tells him that the crumpled note holds a secret message in spy code, which is about to catapult the two seventh grade secret agents plus Alvin's younger sister Daphne, the Pest, into the intricacies of authentic code detection and the dangers of a newly stirred-up 100-year-old mystery.
Even Alvin's Magnificent Brain is nearly put on overload before the bang-up solution to the code and the mystery carry the three agents to an ending that is satisfying to all...well, to almost all. This classic tale from 1963 includes Alvin's own notes on cryptography in an appendix at the back.