TIME FLIES

Private investigator I returns to solve a case of lost time in this new installment of Lazar's Private I series.

“After dozing in my chair, I had some time on my hands,” begins the bright pink anthropomorphic capital letter I, depicted in a simple serif font and sporting a fedora hat and tie. Opting to take a stroll in the not-mean-looking streets of Capital City, he soon discovers that there is something amiss—a thief is absconding with the city’s clocks and timepieces. Private I interviews victims, including the letter G, who humorously goes by the name Grandfather and owns a store called Grandfather’s Clocks.Then the solution dawns on I. He calls for a noontime town meeting in Punctuation Park (“You'll know it's noon when the sun's directly overhead,” I advises), and when a certain letter shows up early, intent on sabotaging the park’s sundial, readers discover that there’s more to the time-averse thief than meets the eye. Wordplay and visual quips abound in this clever and uncontrived sendup of the detective noir drama. Dramatic irony is humorously supplied by the fact that the illustrations hint at the culprit’s identity from the very first pages. Both the puns and the whodunit will help kids build critical thinking and literacy skills. The cartoonish artwork, rendered in watercolor and colored pencil with letterpress details, have a retro sensibility.

Time flies when you’re having fun reading this terrifically silly spoof.