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P.K. PINKERTON & THE PETRIFIED MAN

Name: P.K. PINKERTON & THE PETRIFIED MAN
Author: Caroline Lawrence
ISBN: 978-0-399-25634-9

From the P.K. Pinkerton series , Vol. 2

by Caroline Lawrence ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2013

A warm, wise, wild and woolly second offering in the Western Mysteries series.

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In this quick-on-the-draw funny follow-up to The Case of the Deadly Desperados (2012), 12-year-old P.K. Pinkerton still roams the seedy streets of Virginia City of 1862…and he’s still up to his eyeballs in trouble.

The good news is his dream of setting up shop as a private eye has come true, even if the “eye” in his newspaper ad does look more like a potato. His first client is a runaway slave girl who witnessed the strangulation of a Soiled Dove named Short Sally Sampson and thinks Sally’s killer is stalking her. P.K. is so absorbed in the case it’s easy to forget his foster parents were murdered just two weeks before. As in the last Wild West adventure, our half-Lakota hero records his suspenseful story on ledger sheets and struggles with his “Thorn”—his inability to show or read emotion that today might be called high-functioning autism. P.K.’s straight-shooting personality, integrity and good heart make readers want to follow him to the ends of the Earth…if not directly to Short Sally’s killer. Run-ins with the truth-twisting Sam Clemens and Civil War references tether this lively mystery to a colorful, if grisly time in U.S. history.

A warm, wise, wild and woolly second offering in the Western Mysteries series. (1862 maps of the Washoe and Virginia City, glossary) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: April 18, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-399-25634-9

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER | CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
P.K. PINKERTON AND THE PISTOL-PACKING WIDOWS
by Caroline Lawrence

- BOOK REVIEW
THE CASE OF THE DEADLY DESPERADOS
by Caroline Lawrence

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PIRATES OF POMPEII
by Caroline Lawrence

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THE SEVENTH MOST IMPORTANT THING

by Shelley Pearsall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 2015

Luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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Traumatized by his father’s recent death, a boy throws a brick at an old man who collects junk in his neighborhood and winds up on probation working for him.

Pearsall bases the book on a famed real work of folk art, the Throne of the Third Heaven, by James Hampton, a janitor who built his work in a garage in Washington, D.C., from bits of light bulbs, foil, mirrors, wood, bottles, coffee cans, and cardboard—the titular seven most important things. In late 1963, 13-year-old Arthur finds himself looking for junk for Mr. Hampton, who needs help with his artistic masterpiece, begun during World War II. The book focuses on redemption rather than art, as Hampton forgives the fictional Arthur for his crime, getting the boy to participate in his work at first reluctantly, later with love. Arthur struggles with his anger over his father’s death and his mother’s new boyfriend. Readers watch as Arthur transfers much of his love for his father to Mr. Hampton and accepts responsibility for saving the art when it becomes endangered. Written in a homespun style that reflects the simple components of the artwork, the story guides readers along with Arthur to an understanding of the most important things in life.

Luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates. (Historical fiction. 10-14)