SOLVED. juvenile mystery/adventure series with a boy genius, his friend, and the sister of one of them, the Pest? [s]

[Leela4]

Can anyone give me more information about a series of juvenile mystery/adventure books concerning a boy genius, his friend, and the sister of one of them, the Pest? I hope I'm not confusing two series here....

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

This could be either the Danny Dunn series by Jay Williams, or the Trick series by Scott Corbett.

The Trick books featured a magic chemistry set, where things never turned out the way they were supposed to. The Lemonade Trick was the first one, but my favorite was The Hateful Plateful Trick.

[Leela4]

Nope, neither.

I was thinking this was the McGurk series, but I'm quite positive it's only two boys and a girl, and the girl is the sister of one of them. So not McGurk. What I'm *not* sure about is if this is the same series as the one in which the sister's nickname is the Pest.

I do remember one plot: Something about an elastic metal which no one can figure out a practical use for. The boy genius suggests coiling it into a spring and using it to power, say, a bicycle. Which he does. In a vivid sequence he (or the other boy) and the girl use the bicycle to get away from some thugs. (Actually, at the age of eight I found this sequence a bit too intense.)

[Holly]

The Alvin Fernald series?

http://www.alvinfernald.com/character...

[Lee]

There is also a series starting with Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Other possibilities are the Einstein Anderson series by Seymour Simon, and the Henry Reed, Inc. series by Keith Robertson.

[Leela4]

Bingo! It's Alvin Fernald! And the book with the elastic metal must be "Alvin Fernald Foreign Trader"

Thank you so much!

[Holly]

Wooo hooo! I think that's the first one I've solved before anyone else. :-) I always end up one answer too late.