SMASHIE MCPERTER AND THE SHOCKING ROCKET ROBBERY

Smashie and Dontel return for their most convoluted case yet.

Room 11 is going to the planetarium today, and Smashie, Dontel, and their grandmothers have prepared a special “space-related snack” for the trip. But during morning meeting, Dontel’s grandmother—who, along with Smashie’s grandmother and Mr. Bloom, the head custodian and an avid astronomer, will be chaperoning—shows off Dontel’s “technically correct drawing of a space rocket” to the admiring amazement of everyone—except Dontel, who doesn’t want it shown. When Ms. Early announces that the best friend of Dontel’s hero, Dr. Cornelius duVasse Bryson, will be at the planetarium, well, Smashie just knows she needs to sneak Dontel’s drawing along to show Dr. Bryson’s friend. But before they even leave, someone steals the snack, and on the bus, Smashie realizes Dontel’s drawing has been stolen too! Griffin’s characters are adorably earnest, gravely enunciating space-related snack over and over, so seriously do they take both the treat and its theft, and Smashie’s agonies of regret at her subterfuge are believable and endearing. The whole is related in a sophisticated style that trusts its readers to keep up all the way to the incredibly sweet, Christie-worthy resolution. Smashie is White, Dontel is Black, and Room 11 is racially diverse. Final illustrations not seen.

A welcome return!