An immersive and encouraging low-stakes introduction to the mystery genre for kids.
Carroll’s debut chapter book follows two mystery-loving sisters investigating the disappearance of their neighbor’s pet dog.
School-age sisters Amanda and Sabrina love reading books. In particular, as daughters of a police detective, they’re drawn to mysteries. They like to jot down clues and try to come up with answers themselves before reading to the end and finding out what happened. One sunny day, the sisters are drawn into a real-life mystery: Friendly old Mrs. Wetzel next door calls out for help—her pet dog, the playful Yorkshire Terrier Sparkles, has been dog-napped. Sabrina and Amanda find a ransom note written in cut-out letters. It directs them to the local park, and from there to several more cryptic notes left about town, leading the girls on while taunting them for their (supposed) inability to follow up on these clues and solve the crime. With time running out for Sparkles to take his medicine, the sisters enlist the help of their twin cousins, Eddie and Sam, with whom they founded the Mystery Club at school. They also run into Graham, Amanda’s boastful and belligerent classmate, whom they drag along. Carroll presents this first Mystery Club adventure in a faux handwritten font upon lined paper, as if the narrative had been recorded in Sabrina’s “Mystery Journal.” Likewise, Adams’ full-page crayon illustrations are depicted as taped-in photographs, offering candid, colorful depictions of the characters involved (who all appear to be white). The prose is straightforward and shouldn’t pose much difficulty for young readers (“It is hard to imagine that anyone would want to hurt Sparkles or Mrs. Wetzel. Everyone in the neighborhood knows and loves Mrs. Wetzel”). The investigation itself is simple, verging on facile; from a pair of watery footprints, the girls deduce that the dog-napper was recently in the vicinity of the crime. This is a somewhat redundant observation, as readers know from Mrs. Wetzel’s earlier testimony that mere minutes have elapsed since Sparkles’ disappearance. Indeed, most of Amanda and Sabrina’s deductions will have already occurred to the reader. However, this may prove to be a positive feature, boosting the confidence of those new to detecting.
An immersive and encouraging low-stakes introduction to the mystery genre for kids.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2019
ISBN: 9781673721928
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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