Saved by the Smell

A boy gets buried in dirty laundry and pulled into time travel shenanigans after his mom’s latest experiment in this first book in the My Mad Scientist Mom chapter book series from acclaimed author-illustrator Jarrett Lerner. Ari’s life is filled with school, video games, and his pet turtle, Fred: pretty run-of-the mill stuff. But not anywhere near run-of-the-mill is Ari’s mom, who’s a mad scientist. That’s right, a MAD scientist. Sure, she strives to make people’s lives better with her inventions, especially at home. But all of Mom’s inventions seem to go just the slightest bit off kilter. And when she devises a time portal to help deal with the massive mounds of dirty laundry that have taken over their house, she creates a MUCH bigger problem than just stinky clothes, and it’s up to Ari to get them out of a prehistoric mess.