Calling all summer sleuths
In honor of Encyclopedia Brown, for whom the end of school means it鈥檚 time to open up his garage office and problem-solve for the children of Idaville, we hereby declare this the Summer of the Word Problem! Actually, summer鈥檚 a lovely season for a good mystery (I happen to like fall, winter, and spring, as well), and this year offers a variety of new mystery stories sure to tempt 9- to 12-year-olds.
These aren鈥檛 mysteries in the sense of the Hardy Boys or the Boxcar Children. Instead, they feature boys and girls trying to get to the bottom of questions that range from the deeply personal (Who am I and where did I come from?) to the humorous (What are those goofy people in the Revolutionary War costumes doing in the woods at night?) to the utterly baffling (Where did the giant statue go, and how do you hide something that weighs 1,000 pounds, anyway?)
For Sam MacKenzie, 鈥渟ummer鈥� and 鈥渞eading鈥� go together about as well as a sardine and pickle sandwich. The 鈥渟kinny but tough鈥� kid at the center of Newbery Honor winner Patricia Reilly Giff鈥檚 new novel Eleven (Random House, 165 pp., $15.99, ages 9-12) has a learning disability and has pretty much given up on the idea of reading.
鈥淭he lines moved like black spiders, stretching their legs and waving their feelers across the pages.鈥�
When searching the attic for his birthday present, Sam comes across a picture of himself as a toddler, with the headline 鈥淢issing.鈥� He can鈥檛 read the accompanying newspaper article, and he鈥檚 afraid to ask his beloved grandfather, Mack, if he鈥檚 been kidnapped.
So, he turns to the new girl in school to help him figure out who he is and where he came from. 鈥淓leven鈥� might zip a little too fast through the plot, but there are elements to savor. Giff does a great job making Sam鈥檚 reading disability part of the mystery without turning the novel into a 鈥渕essage鈥� book. But the relationships truly make the book. The friendship between Sam and Caroline is excellently rendered, as is my favorite part: Sam鈥檚 lovely extended family.
Family secrets are also at the heart of Tim Wynne-Jones鈥檚 Rex Zero, King of Nothing (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; 218 pp., $16.95, ages 9-12). Wynne-Jones, who won an Edgar Award for 鈥淭he Boy in the Burning House,鈥� is a wonderful writer (we adore his 鈥淶oom鈥� books about an explorer feline), and his 鈥淩ex Zero鈥� stories are warm, vivid reminiscences of what it was like to be 11 in 1960s Ottawa, Ontario. They are full of detail, and there鈥檚 no false nostalgia. (I could have used a little: At one point, Rex鈥檚 buddy finds his older brother鈥檚 stash of centerfolds.) Rex and his friends are surrounded by what tend to be regarded as modern troubles: divorce, spousal abuse, and traumatic stress disorder. Lousy teachers have, alas, always been with us. To foil the dread Miss Garr, Rex and his friends come up with a truly old-fashioned solution: a letter-writing campaign.
Meanwhile, Rex finds an address book and, in trying to return it to its owner, meets a beautiful damsel in distress. But his nascent detective career causes him to miss the 鈥淥ur Mistress Day鈥� 鈥� excuse me, Armistice Day, ceremony 鈥� bitterly disappointing his father, a veteran still haunted by World War II. While the other books reviewed here are fine for younger children, parents will either want to be available to talk about the issues in 鈥淩ex Zero,鈥� or read it with anyone younger than a fifth grader.
Naturally, that鈥檚 the book my 6-year-old chose for his bedtime story, so I distracted my art-loving first-grader with the mobiles of Alexander Calder (ooh, shiny!). Calder鈥檚 whimsical-yet-sophisticated art is at the center of Blue Balliett鈥檚 new puzzle novel, The Calder Game (Scholastic Press, 375 pp., $17.99, ages 9-12). Those unfamiliar with Balliett鈥檚 work should start with her Edgar Award-winning 鈥淐hasing Vermeer,鈥� but fans of that book will be thrilled to join Calder Pillay and his friends Petra and Tommy on another adventure. This time around, Calder and his father have gone to Woodstock, England, where an Alexander Calder sculpture has just been donated to the 1,000-year-old village. The villagers are less than thrilled to have the modern art plunked down in the middle of all that quaintness, and Calder Pillay also feels less than welcome. Then, both boy and sculpture vanish overnight and Petra and Tommy rush to England to help Calder鈥檚 father find him. Balliett鈥檚 mixture of art, math, history, and philosophy is definitely a winning one, but the resolution to the mystery isn鈥檛 quite as satisfying this time around. There are a few too many coincidences, and a sour character鈥檚 overnight (off-screen) transformation strikes a false note. But to counterbalance that, Balliett fills the book with British guerrilla artist Banksy; a castle, complete with maze; and Pummie, a giant, one-eyed black cat. All that, and a coded message embedded in Brett Helquist鈥檚 illustrations.
Younger readers will get a kick out of Morgy鈥檚 Musical Summer, by Maggie Lewis (Houghton Mifflin 100 pp., $15, ages 9-12). Morgy MacDougal-MacDuff is off to music camp with his trumpet and his name carefully labeled on everything, including the soap. Sadly, the camp, run by Col. Hiram Profundo, is on shaky financial footing and is in danger of being turned into condos. And Morgy keeps seeing strange visions in the woods at night. Plus, being a 鈥減romising beginner鈥� in a camp full of prodigies can be tough, and Morgy comes in for some bullying as he struggles to master his part in the Concerto Fabuloso. The plot is a touch crammed, but the Morgy books are good fun (and fun to read aloud). Readers heading off to summer camp for the first time will enjoy this outing.
Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews fiction for the Monitor.
