Punny, whimsical fun.
Three outcast sisters solve crimes.
Hildegurp, Yuckmina, and Glubbifer are perhaps the most unusual residents of the town of Covenly. Lacking a car, they travel by broom, and they run a pet emporium and a detective agency out of their home. Sadly, their neighbors are too spooked to visit—except for young Jessica Nibley. The sisters are depressed by their lack of business, while Jessica is at loose ends with school out for the summer. When Jessica, attempting to elevate everyone’s mood, takes them to the tire swing, they’re shocked to see the swing’s rope has been cut. In addition to using their Eye (a crystal ball attached to an old stick) to investigate and going undercover, they look into the case of a missing robin. Mishaps—and hilarity—ensue. Puns, charmingly eccentric characters, and Amelia Bedelia–esque misunderstandings on the parts of the well-meaning but clueless sisters (“Robin!” “We are not robbing”) result in an amusing book for readers transitioning into longer chapter books. Enticing black-and-white illustrations capture the spirit of this quirky tale. The mystery is simple but just right for the target audience. Readers will be left with wise guidance on the importance of self-confidence. The book ends with a recipe for seed cakes for robins. Race and ethnicity are generally left ambiguous in both text and artwork.
Punny, whimsical fun. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781771474597
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
Models attention to detail and deductive reasoning in a fun beach setting, complete with interesting facts.
Beachcombers and shell seekers, gather ’round and meet Shelby and Watts, Planetary Investigators.
When Fred the hermit crab can’t find a new, larger shell to move into, he seeks out the “brilliant brains” of Shelby and Watts. Shelby, a fox, is the detective in the duo, and Watts, a badger, loves facts, adding simple fun ones—about hermit crabs, tides, tide-pool dwellers, how shells are used, etc.—throughout the story. Watts also loves to catalog clues in his notebook. In fact, the first mystery that Shelby solves is that of Watts’ lost notebook. Young readers can watch Shelby investigate, solve, and explain her deductive process, all while learning to carefully examine all the details in each graphic panel. Once the missing shells are found, it’s “time for the hermit crab shuffle,” in which the members of a colony of hermit crabs all line up and trade up to larger homes. Final pages include “Earth-Saving Tips from Shelby & Watts,” such as taking pictures of shells instead of collecting them, eating seafood from sustainable sources, and cleaning up the beach. The seven chapters are of varying length, but with several one-panel pages and many pages with low word count, the book is shorter than it appears, which should be a confidence boost for young readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Models attention to detail and deductive reasoning in a fun beach setting, complete with interesting facts. (Graphic early reader/mystery. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20531-0
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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