Even though it is a sequel, “The Wells Bequest” by Polly Shulman has enough adventure, humor, romance, and heart-pounding moments to be its own series. Shulman begins the novel with a crescendo, starting with a time-twisting event where we meet Leo and Jaya. Leo is a boy from a science heavy family. His sister and brother are majoring in science and his Mother and Father are both scientists, this makes Leo an odd one out. Not because he doesn’t like science or isn’t amazing at it, he is, but the science school his brother and sister went to didn’t accept him. Instead, he had to go to the science school that his family used to make fun of. One day Leo is sitting in his room when a weird machine the size of a football crashes in his room. There were two, 6 inch people on the machine and they seemed to know exactly what would happen, and when. Leo is jealous of the pint size boy who is sitting behind a gorgeous girl on what appears to be a time machine when he realizes that the boy is him.
I loved the whole book but there were three main things about it that stood out. I really enjoyed the humor. “The Wells Bequest” Is full of hilarious science jokes, awkward romance, and funny mannerisms. For example, Leo uses science vocabulary as cuss words. Another thing that I liked was the suspense and tension. The tension between Jaya and Leo when they were mad was insane. Also, the moments with Simon in London were very creepy in a “make you cringe” kind of way. The most suspenseful, heart-pounding moment was at Tesla’s lab with all of the paradoxes and fighting.
If I had to choose one favorite component of the book, it would be the repository. The New-York Circulating Materials is basically a library for objects. Leo gets a recommendation to go to the Repository by his teacher to help with his science fair project. While researching, he is approached by a beautiful girl, then he realizes that she is the girl who rode on the weird machine with him. He learns that her name is Jaya and they develop a quick friendship helping Leo get a job at The New-York Circulating Material Repository. At the repository there are the Special Collections. The Wells Bequest is a special collection that contains famous items from science fiction books like the time machine that Leo saw himself and Jaya riding on in the beginning of the book.  
What makes up a good book? A good plot, holds  the readers attention, etc. This list could go on and on but I can tell you one thing, “The Wells Bequest” meets all of the standards and more. This book is full of fun and danger keeping every chapter filled with excitement. In conclusion, I think that “The Wells Bequest” is an absolute must have for any library.