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The Notebook of Doom #8

THE NOTEBOOK OF DOOM #08: CHARGE OF THE LIGHTNING BUGS

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Stermont's latest monster is SHOCKING!

This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!

In this 8th book, there's trouble at Alexander's brand-new school. Lights are flickering, students are getting zapped, and escalators are running at super-speeds! When the sky fills with green lightning, Alexander, Rip, and Nikki know monsters must be to blame. Can the S.S.M.P. turn out the lights on these shocking monsters?

Paperback

First published June 30, 2015

124 people are currently reading
347 people want to read

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Troy Cummings

94 books218 followers

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5 stars
508 (56%)
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243 (27%)
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115 (12%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
Profile Image for Juliana Lee.
2,272 reviews40 followers
October 16, 2015
When Alexander captures lightning bugs the day before school starts, he never dreams what the consequences might be. By the next day, Alexander’s alarm clock had stopped working, dad’s car battery was dead, and the electrical system in the school was slowly shutting down, and the traffic lights were malfunctioning. The next day there was a green lightning storm and at the planetarium the stars moved across the sky creating pictures and spelling out a warning. Alexander and his friends went to investigate. Different colored lightning bugs zapped the kids on the head. And worse of all, a giant lightning bug hatched from a cocoon sucking up all the electricity in the school. Then Alexander saves the day by taking the electrical power back from the lightning bug. He wore his rubber gloves and tricked the lightning bug into zapping his wrench while he worked on the school’s electrical power box. http://julianaleewriter.com/the-cybil...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for zapkode.
1,046 reviews77 followers
September 11, 2019
{My thoughts} – Alexander, Rip and Nikki get to have their first day at their new school. Alexander went to bed early, set and alarm and still work up late. The night before he and his dad had caught some lightning bugs. Those bugs seem to have disappeared come the morning, however, everything in and around their house that needed electricity to work was no longer working.

Alexander made it to school but he was really late. Nothing was working the way that it was suppose and he realized that whenever he’d touch things he’d be shocked. Like when he first got to his classroom he was shocked by the door handle.

Alexander, Rip and Nikki decided that the electricity problems around their school and town were just a fluke. Deep down Alexander was pretty sure that something like a monster was causing the problems though. He starts trying to figure out just what it could be. He eventually is able to sort it all out and comes to the conclusion that all the warning signs they have been seeing must mean something is going on. Since those signs point to the roof – they head up there to see what they can learn.

I have to say this was an interesting monster and it was brilliant how the author had pulled the story together. I really enjoyed it a lot. I look forward to reading more books in the series in the future.
Profile Image for Becky B.
9,124 reviews176 followers
June 9, 2018
Alexander and his father notice some lightning bugs during their last cookout of the summer. And then electronics all over the city start to lose power. The SSMP members are sure there's a monster about causing the issues, but they can't find anything in the notebook that fits their observations. Can they figure out what's draining the power or are they doomed to walk seven flights of stairs to school every day the rest of the school year?

This one had a little more twist than normal. The culprit wasn't exactly what I thought from the title or the chapters leading up to the climax. Along the way there's a little bit of info on real lightning/electricity safety kids can pick up from this one. Another fun, non-scary, problem solving adventure with the SSMP.

Notes on content: Some people get shocked but not seriously hurt, and a bug explodes into sparkles of light (not gory and he wasn't a nice bug so it is more of a relief than anything).
Profile Image for Cris.
2,304 reviews26 followers
November 30, 2022
The Notebook of Doom v8

Sadly this isn’t one of my favorite. I love lightning bugs and in the story they are made into the bad guy. I also do not like that gang is playing with electricity. My husband is a journeyman lineman, and dealing with power is an extremely dangerous job.
30 reviews
March 21, 2017
They made a lightning bolt and it almost shocked Alexander but instead of shocking Alexander it just shocked the chair in the top of their school in the planetarium. But the stars were actually the mini lightning bugs making pictures. Instead of white lightning bugs glowing, they were green lightning bugs. Also, the lightning bugs got enough electricity to hatch a cocoon thing that hatched a gigantic lightning bug that made Nikki and Rip feel numb.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1 review
December 29, 2017
Ok

I met troy Cummings but as I talked to him and heard him I could tell he had a hard time writing this book just because the lack of writing and detail in some parts but great detail in other parts
Profile Image for Ronel Janse van Vuuren.
Author 67 books55 followers
June 29, 2018
Bugs are stealing the electricity!

A cute, yet thrilling, story of bug monsters that have to be defeated before they zap up all the electricity and probably kill lots of people.

A fun story for 7-9 year-olds who love reading about monsters.
Profile Image for Jeanne.
44 reviews7 followers
January 2, 2020
I read these because my grandson asks me to but I preferred the books I read in this series to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Of course this one has monsters and the WK books deal more with things that could happen but. . .
Profile Image for Kiran.
149 reviews8 followers
June 7, 2021
In my opinion the weakest installment in the Notebook of Doom series so far. Cummings seems to have struggled with this one. Reading this with my kiddo was a bit painful although my 6 year old appeared to have enjoyed it as much as the others.
115 reviews1 follower
September 23, 2018
Alexander, Rip, and Nikki are members of the Super Secret Monster Patrol. When their town starts experiencing power failures, they must investigate to see which monster is behind it.
Profile Image for Emma.
4,938 reviews11 followers
December 24, 2020
Dr. Tallow gives me Umbridge vibes.
Profile Image for Brian.
797 reviews28 followers
October 28, 2021
My kid likes these books. I am over them now. The ending of this one came up really quick.
Profile Image for A-drew.
56 reviews
December 7, 2022
A is checking these books out at his school library (CCE - 2nd grade - age 7)
Mom and Dad are having fun reading these books aloud to A. We all enjoy them. They are silly and fun.
Profile Image for Shankar B..
225 reviews4 followers
April 5, 2023
I liked when Alexander found a solution to defeating Thunder Bug. 🐜
Profile Image for Jenny.
173 reviews1 follower
May 31, 2024
My 6 year old was a little bit more freaked out by this monster compared to the ones in the previous books, but still really enjoyed it!
89 reviews
January 26, 2021
Saw my little cousin reading this book and I thought I'd give it a try! Definitely a great monster story for any little kid with little science lessons along the way. Cute book and a fun adventure!
Profile Image for Berkeley Poder.
147 reviews7 followers
October 7, 2016
School hadn't even started. There was a boy named Alexander and he had to take a quiz not a math quiz and not a selling quiz it was super-secret quiz about monsters. His two friends Nikki and Rip had made it up for him. Alexander had raced through it until he got to question 20. The question was what's the stinkiest monster in the notebook? Alexander had left that question blank and turned in his paper. Nikki had told him you did not answer question 20 "So, which monster is the stinkiest?" Nikki had gave Alexander a book that said S.S.M.P on the book cover, and the pages were full of monster drawings. She flipped it open and passed it to Alexander. Alexander had looked in the book and said "of course!" "Nothing stinks worse than a trash-squatch!"Rip hadn't believe that tomorrow was their first day of school. There was weird electrical problems all over Stermont including at Alexander's brand new school! Lights had been flashing, batteries are dying, and everyone was shocked. They had asked them self "Could lighting bugs be causing these problems? The S.S.M.P will have to turn out the lights on their most powerful monster yet! Alyza Alvarad0
Profile Image for Ms. B.
3,749 reviews73 followers
August 24, 2015
Book 8 in The Notebook of Doom series.
Alexander, Rip and Nikki must save their town from monster lightning bugs that are messing with the town's electricity. This is the book for those who like short chapter books with illustrations; it's full of cartoon like illustrations. Not only will this book entertain young readers, it will make the science of electricity more fun.
Profile Image for Jenn.
1,208 reviews3 followers
July 25, 2017
Somebody got the series for their birthday, so we had to start reading it right away.

These would be great to use in a classroom to talk about creative writing, work choice, as well as talk about science and parts of the scientific method.
523 reviews
May 24, 2016
Recommended to me by my grandson who has enjoyed all the series. I liked it too. All the pages are illustrated and it is a chapter book! The most fun was when I realized that when they lost electrical power in the book the pages went to all black with white words. Cool.
Profile Image for Anna.
631 reviews5 followers
Read
August 31, 2016
I loved the teacher's method of teaching according to students' interest and the current situation at hand. I appreciated the discussion of lightning, to help readers learn how they can stay safe in lightning storms.
Guided Reading Level N
Profile Image for Kelly Carey.
882 reviews4 followers
August 29, 2015
Follow the clues to see if you can figure out what monster is stealing all the power before the characters discover the truth.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews

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