Fans of the resourceful Gaskitt family, introduced in The Man Who Wore All His Clothes (2001), will welcome this new, multi-stranded caper. While Mrs. Gaskitt is at home winning a year’s supply of Crunchy Mice Cat Food, a houseful of new furniture and other prizes from various sweepstakes, the arrival of a grandmotherly substitute teacher, Mrs. Plum, at school coincides with such a sudden rash of missing possessions that the Gaskitt twins and their classmates begin to get suspicious. In McEwan’s bright, simply drawn cartoons, Mrs. Gaskitt rushes energetically about, while Mrs. Plum is the picture of innocence—until the two collide shortly after the school fair’s cash box vanishes, and loot spills from Mrs. Plum’s big, wheeled suitcase. Running jokes and surprises further animate this cheery tale, which will draw “Young Cam Jansen” graduates like flies. (Fiction. 8-10)
