Mickey Rangel, a sweet, intuitive and smart fifth-grade student, faces the challenges of his first case as an amateur detective: the theft of an elegant pen, engraved with the White House logo and the President’s signature, a gift to classmate Eddy from his senator father. The pen has gone missing from Miss Garza’s classroom. The prime suspect: the gorgeous and distant Toots Rodríguez, Mickey’s secret love and his enemy’s girlfriend, who appeals to Mickey to clear her name. As it often happens in the best mystery stories, Mickey comes to the unexpected solution of the enigma with the help of a mysterious “angel,” who leaves him an anonymous message. This bilingual chapter-book edition, the first in a series of Mickey Rangel Mysteries, will engage intermediate readers in both languages, English and Spanish, and offers multiple possibilities for school projects, group discussions and read-aloud sessions. Villarroel’s well-crafted translation into Spanish maintains the suspense and humor of the original English version, narrated by Mickey in fine, hard-boiled style. Mora’s illustrations add a refreshing touch, effectively breaking up the text in this appealing introduction. (Mystery. 8-12)
