Beginning Readers’ favorite young pancake-eating detective is back with his latest case. Nate and his dog Sludge are a wonderful team—Nate depends on Sludge to help solve mysteries. But Nate is on his own this time, because Sludge is the case. When his trusty dog gets lost in the department store, Nate has to put the clues together by himself and try to think like a dog. With his friends Annie, Fang, and Rosamond telling him about the latest sightings of Sludge, Nate starts out on a search through the store. But each clue is a dead end . . . until Nate realizes he has to stop thinking like a dog, and start thinking like Sludge—the best detective dog in the business. Nate, Sludge, and all their friends have been delighting beginning readers for years. The familiar characters, basic plot, and illustrated pages of these simple chapter books build confidence in children who are just starting to read and who look forward to a new mystery. (Easy reader. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32604-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bunny Brown and Jack Jones, ace detectives, join forces again to solve their third easy-reader mystery in this snappy new series from Newbery Medalist Rylant, author of the beloved Henry and Mudge books. Bunny the bunny is the practical brains of the detective duo, and Jack the raccoon is her humorous sidekick, who is even funnier in this book than in the previous volumes, The Case of the Missing Monkey (not reviewed) and The Case of the Climbing Cat (2000). In this case, Bunny and Jack solve the chronic disappearance (and reappearance) of a trombone from a neighborhood music store. The puzzling possum of the title, Freddy, has been repeatedly "borrowing" the trombone so he can play at hayride entertainments with Gus's Big Brass Boys. Bunny and Jack nab him red-handed, and Bunny offers the practical solution of paying for the trombone by giving lessons at the music store. The combination easy-reader, easy-mystery follows the established format of a few clues, a mild neighborhood mystery, and lots of clever puns and jokes that will delight the intended audience. The humor is exactly on track for the early elementary grades, including a squashed marshmallow on Jack's seat and a quick rush to the bathroom following some dizzying explanations by the music-store owner (just the sort of jokes first graders adore). Karas's engaging illustrations in acrylic, gouache, and pencil help create unique personalities for Bunny and Jack. It's no mystery why this series is successful, and this endearing duo seems destined to crack many more cases of minor mischief in their urban neighborhood. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-688-16308-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
It’s a long shot, but Adler takes a stab at turning a mystery on the slender hope of a shopping list. Can it be done? Not in this effort, the seventh in the Young Cam Jansen, early reading series. Cam—that’s short for Camera, that’s short for her photographic memory—helps her dad locate a shopping list he has misplaced. But most of this story is spent introducing readers—likely for the umpteenth time—to Cam, her rare talent, and her display of that talent by repeating verbatim a book she read some time back. Natti’s artwork, which provides welcome relief from the stilted prose, also provides a clue to the missing document and gives the effort its most obvious appeal. Indeed, a visual-memory game has been tacked into the endpapers and is quite fun. Which can’t be said for the story, where anything at all could be substituted for the shopping list—why not a laundry ticket, which is right up there with shopping lists in the fascination department?—serving to underscore the arbitrariness and tedium of the whole endeavor. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-670-89281-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
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