Twelve-year-old Steve Brixton loves all 58 mysteries featuring the intrepid, smart and sporty Bailey Brothers, but his favorite book is The Bailey Brothers’ Detective Handbook because Steve would like to be a detective when he grows up (or so he thinks). When his best friend Dana draws detectives out of the hat as a topic for a social studies paper while he draws early American needlework, Steve’s depressed. When he’s checking out his library’s only book on historical quilts and ninjas descend upon him from the skylights, he’s terrified and perplexed. Good thing he knows what a detective should do. He escapes, only to be captured by Librarian Secret Agents (who communicate using Library of Congress numbers). Suddenly everyone (including Mom’s cop boyfriend) is treating Steve like a criminal, and if he can’t find a cryptographic quilt before the bad guys, he’ll be tried for treason! Barnett’s coolly hysterical sendup of the Hardy Boys is peppered with excerpts from Bailey Brothers books and (too few of) Rex’s tongue-in-cheek black-and-white illustrations and will entertain all who have outgrown the originals. Pray for sequels. (Fiction. 8-12)
