Casey’s Cases by Kay Healy (Neal Porter Books, 160 pages, grades 2-5). Fifth grader Casey aspires to be a detective, and sees a mystery in almost every situation. Who is the new girl? Where is her missing hair band? What did her crush write in his notebook? Who is the owner of the lost cat she found? Some mysteries are solved in a few minutes (the hair band), while others take the whole book to solve (the new girl, Jan, who becomes Casey’s best friend), and some have surprise twists (the stray cat, whose growing belly turns out not to be from eating too much tuna). Here’s hoping that Casey and Jan will team up for another book of mysteries.
The humor, simple story line, and short chapters will make this an appealing choice for beginning and/or reluctant readers, who may also enjoy copying the drawings that employ basic shapes, such as the triangle-headed Casey.
Monti and Leo: A Mystery in Pocketville by Sylvie Kantorovitz (Walker Books, 80 pages, grades 1-4). Monti and Leo enjoy looking at Mrs. Sheep’s collection of small figurines on display at the local library. In fact, Monti is so enchanted with one item in the collection that he’s a prime suspect when it disappears. Leo wrestles with his feelings that Monti might have wanted it enough to take it, but ultimately he believes in his friend’s innocence and sets out to solve the mystery. When he starts hearing about other missing items around town, he discovers a bird he’s never seen before flying overhead with an item in her beak. Leo runs after the bird, climbs a huge tree, and discovers all the missing treasures–including the figurine–in the bird’s nest. In the final chapter, Monti thanks his friend and reveals his new collection: containers, each one holding a mini collection of different small items.
This is book two of a series I missed last year (thank you, Walker Books for sending me a review copy). The animal cast will appeal to fans of Mr. Wolf’s Class, and it would make a good book for those just starting with chapter books. I’m always fascinated by animal stories in which some of the animals act like humans and others are more like animals (like how Marc Brown’s Arthur has a pet dog), so I was intrigued by the fact that one crow was living in a nest acting bird-like, while another one was the local librarian.
A Pocket Full of Rocks by Kristin Mahoney, illustrated by E. B. Goodale (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 40 pages, ages 3-8). Mom may say a pocket full of rocks will make your coat dirty, Dad might ask where your other mitten will go, and your sister will dismiss them as ordinary, but you know those rocks will make excellent chairs for fairies, or let you write on the sidewalk if you don’t have chalk. There are other collections to fill your pockets as the year goes on: petals in the spring, seashells in the winter, and acorns in the fall. Each object fires up your imagination, and at the end of the year, you can use them for presents: a bowl of shells for Dad’s dresser, tiny pictures on the acorns for your sister, and a bag of petals for Mom to put in the drawer with her sweaters. And a pocket full of rocks for you to make sleds for the fairies.
Wow, this book really took me back, as my older daughter–soon to turn 30–was a collector just like the narrator. I don’t remember flower petals, but our house had plenty of rocks, shells, and acorns, with imaginative stories about each collection. This would be a lovely book to begin a conversation about collecting, seasons, or making crafts from your imagination, with illustrations that beautifully capture each season.