Review by New York Times Review
#+ |9780307743909 |9780307949455 |9780307743893 |9780307949448 |9780449011409 |9780062082947 |9780062082930 |9781455851546 |9781455851522 |9781455851553 |9781455851539 |9781455851515 |9780763651206 |9780763656362 |9780007334063 |9780007447428 |9780375870293 |9780375970290 |9780449013816 |9780375988684 |9781554981809 |9780375967559 |9780307942630 |9780375867552 ~ MEMBERS of the criminal underworld, beware the little children. They've been on to you for years, and the number of mystery-loving young readers seems only to grow. Now to the ranks of Encyclopedia Brown and Cam Jansen comes the newest crop of budding Hercule Poirots: two are American, one is from Botswana, one gang hails from England, and two are Canadians 'with twitchy noses. The one thing they have in common is that each provides the seeds to understanding how a perfectly average child (or rabbit) might go about becoming a sleuth when baddies need foiling. While it's hardly Alexander McCall Smith's first work for children, "The Great Cake Mystery" uses a particularly interesting approach. McCall Smith's early chapter book travels back in time to introduce Precious Ramotswe, the protagonist in his "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, when she was just a child herself. "The Great Cake Mystery" recounts Precious' first case ever: a hungry thief is lifting treats and delicious tidbits kept in the children's belongings in her classroom. Though the book is gorgeously illustrated by the remarkably talented Iain McIntosh, McCall Smith, alas, does not seem entirely comfortable writing for a younger audience. Characters often explain things that would be entirely obvious to them, and chapter breaks are unnervingly sporadic. The result is a beautifullooking book that fills a real need for detective stories featuring characters who are anything other than white, but one that could have been stronger. Another entry into this genre also features a character with a serious built-in fan base. Yet where McCall Smith writes younger, Jane O'Connor goes for older readers. Fancy Nancy is an undisputed picture-book and early-reader phenomenon, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before her creators started working her into chapter books. It's tempting to write off "Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth" as a bold attempt to siphon additional cash from little girls' parents. However, bedazzled magnifying glasses aside, "Super Sleuth" is quite well done. In their first outing as detectives, Nancy and her best friend, Bree, discover two mini-mysteries (one involving a guilty friend, the other a missing marble) and through believable and clever investigative work manage to solve both. O'Connor, a children's books editor in her own right, has a fine ear for dialogue and includes details that will amuse parents roped into reading this ai bedtime. You can't write this one off. Just as Nancy spins off into a series for children who might otherwise outgrow her, so does Clarice Bean morph into Ruby Redfort. Fans of Lauren Child's "Clarice Bean" books know by now how much Clarice adores reading a mystery series starring a girl named Ruby Redfort. With "Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes," those books-within-the-books are now a reality. Here, the code-cracking genius Ruby is recruited by the secret agency Spectrum to help foil a bank heist and protect a rare jade statue in a story that clearly draws inspiration from the hardboiled American crime novels of yore. Children must therefore get past characters calling one another "kid," "sweetheart," "lady," and a whole host of outtas, wannas and gottas. (Child is British, and her awe of American vernacular shows.) Though the book is a nice pastiche of the spy genre for younger readers, sluggish sections in which Ruby reads newspapers may lose some. Child sets her story in an imagined world where spy gadgets are abundant but cellphones and the Internet seem not to exist. When a phone number is listed as KLondike 5-1212, the jig is officially up. A more reliable method of doing away with technology is simply to place a story in the past - the distant past, if at all possible. Though known best to Americans for his work on the deadly serious "Dark Materials" books, Philip Pullman taps into his funny side with the wholly lighthearted "Two Crafty Criminals!," a set of capers previously published in Britain in 1994 and '95 but appearing here for the first time. In the late-19th-century London borough of Lambeth, a crew of kids calling themselves the New Cut Gang encounter two distinct mysteries in separate stories. In the first, someone is spreading counterfeit money and it's up to the Gang to use a mannequin - an easily manipulated chestnut man - and a bit of ambergris to thwart the villain. In the second, someone has stolen the gas fitters' silver and the Gang manages to save the day thanks to a strongman, a bowler hat and the Prince of Wales himself. Where Child attempts an American voice with mixed results, Pullman fully embraces his English roots, which means children must tolerate references to everything from shillings to cricket without explanation. Once the stories hit their stride, they prove to be a hoot, but they may require patience to get there. CROSSING back to Canada, we find the loosest mystery of the bunch. Polly Horvath has never struck me as an author who cares one jot what people think of her, and "Mr. and Mrs. Bunny - Detectives Extraordinaire!" does little to change this opinion. Raised by members of the counterculture, the perfectly sensible (and human) Madeline is stunned when her parents are kidnapped by what appears to be a car full of dastardly foxes. To her aid come Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, a pair of rabbits who have recently taken up detective work as their latest hobby. They may initially be more in love with the idea of wearing fedoras than with actual detecting, but they are Madeline's best hope. As with "Two Crafty Criminals!," readers will have to slog through language that isn't particularly child-friendly, in this case involving an alt-hippie lifestyle's references and phrasings. Yet if they make it past the first chapter, they're in the clear - everything thereafter is quite amusing. Horvath overdoes the winks to adult readers, but her fuzzy detectives will give younger readers something they can readily grasp and enjoy. Origin stories one and all, these introductory detective books won't necessarily supplant the established Nancy Drew or Jigsaw Jones in a child's affections. But they'll almost certainly sate a craving for bite-size mysteries. Elizabeth Bird is the New York Public Library's youth materials specialist. She is collaborating on a book about the true stories behind popular children's books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 13, 2012]
Review by Booklist Review
Bat plays piano, and Rat sings. There's only a few hours until their gig, and Rat can't find the right lyrics for Bat's new tune. To get the creative juices flowing, the duo takes an ice-cream break, but then Bat faces some indecision of his own: How can he pick a flavor when he has so many favorites? A minor dustup between the friends, with apologies from each, provides Rat with the inspiration for her song a rhyming ditty about the things she likes best, with her favorite favorite being bandmate Bat. Jennings' breezy story is more a celebration of friendship than a look at the artistic process or musical collaboration, and perhaps in straddling both themes, it lacks some cohesion. Still, there is plenty of entertaining silliness to share, particularly in Cordell's (Another Brother, 2012) pencil-and-watercolor cityscapes, expressive animal characters, and droll urban details, including a cockroach bellhop, a cutaway view of Rat's basement duplex, and the crowd of nocturnal city slickers enjoying ice cream and the late-night jazz show.--McKulski, Kristen Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bat and Rat are best friends and a musical duo: Bat is the composer/musician and Rat is the lyricist/singer. Stuck on a song, they head to an ice cream shop, where a tragic accident (Rat is somewhat responsible for the demise of Bat's tower of ice cream scoops) and subsequent flareup inspire a new song that celebrates their friendship. Jennings (Lucky Cap) and Cordell (Another Brother) try to put a new twist on a familiar friendship-under-pressure story, and it's refreshing to have a children's book take place in a nocturnal, decidedly cosmopolitan hipster world. But their storytelling never gains traction. Very little is made of the urban nighttime setting, readers get no sense of Bat and Rat's creative process or collaboration, and yet two whole spreads are devoted to how they traverse the floors of their apartment building to meet in the lobby. Perhaps most disappointing, the much anticipated song, "Favorite Favorite," is a hodgepodge of silly rhymes ("My favorite cheese is runny and smelly./ My favorite noodle is vermicelli") and repetition. Ages 4-8. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-Best friends Rat and Bat live in the Hotel Midnight and make music together. The rodent's apartment is in the basement, and her flying friend's is in the attic. Between jam sessions and gigs, they spend their time eating ice cream (Gorgonzola Swirl, Mint Fly Chip) and searching for inspiration in a city that resembles New York. When Rat buys Bat a seven-scoop cone that mostly falls onto the pavement, a new song is born. This book's lesson-that we can create beauty from disappointments in life-is an uplifting one. Pencil and watercolor illustrations convey the sense of excitement in a nighttime cityscape with lush, glittery midnight-blue skies. The whimsical drawings are inventive, sometimes spanning two pages to show the dizzying height of buildings. Children will enjoy lingering over a cutaway view of four stories of the hotel. The clever artwork perfectly complements Jennings's sharp, funny wordplay ("My favorite singer? Rat King Cole"). Children will delight in this charming story about a musical duo searching for beauty in the most mundane moments. In this exuberant, effortless book, art is a powerful, redemptive force-even if it is created by a bat and rat.-Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard H.S. Early College, Queens, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Best friends and musical duo Bat and Rat are enjoying ice cream when Bat's wobbly ice cream cone of all his favorite flavors tumbles to the ground. Rat finds inspiration in Bat's remaining single scoop to write their new song: "Favorite Favorite." Nocturnal creatures from owls to insects populate the pencil and watercolor illustrations in this simple, silly friendship tale. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A sweet friendship story hums with jazz and is heaped with ice cream. Bat and Rat have a lot going on. Denizens of the uptown Hotel Midnight, Bat lives on the 33rd floor and Rat in the basement. Bat composes and plays piano in their jazz duo, while Rat writes the lyrics and sings. She's stymied with the words for their new tune, so the pair meets for ice cream. Cordell's amusing watercolors depict a William Steigesque menagerie at the ice cream parlor. A frog's long tongue licks a cone held at arm's length, and a weasel-like worker labors mightily on Bat's towering, seven-scoop treat. Jennings' often-charming dialogue reveals the two friends' characteristics: "Rat, can you hold my cone so I can fly up and lick my top scoop?" Alas, a skateboarding hare and zooming bus topple and flatten six of Bat's scoops. Amid the flare of emotion over the spill (Bat chastises Rat, then apologizes), Rat finds the creative key to the song's lyrics: She has many favorite things, but her "favorite favorite is Bat." Concluding spreads depicting enthusiastic fans of many species at the hotel's rooftop Twelve O'Clock Room and retrospective scenes of the friends' good times are paired with the little song's affirming lyrics. Cordell's starry cityscapes combine with Jennings' gentle text for an agreeable read-aloud--with a cherry on top. (Picture book. 4-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
