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| Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook |
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First Slurpy is fishnapped, then other things from Mrs. Blackwell's room start to disappear. Odder still, whoever is committing these crimes leaves a note written in poetry. Edgar has it all covered in his "crime investigation notebook"--but so does Patrick Chen, who has copied Edgar and is trying to solve the case first. Yet as Edgar keenly observes his surroundings, he notices many interesting things about his classmates. The more closely he watches two "suspects," the more he begins to think they might make pretty good friends. This warm and humorous story puts writing, friendship, and mystery into a short, accessible chapter book.
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Gr 3-6-The kids at Wordsmith Elementary School get a lesson on poetry when a thief stages a series of classroom thefts, leaving behind small poems at the scene of the crime. Edgar Allan keeps notes in his crime journal and writes some verses of his own as his classmates compete to solve the mystery. He thinks his home life is strange with his parents both employed as clowns, but when he learns more about the thoughts and personal lives of his classmates through the poetry they write, he gains a deeper understanding of himself and his community. With characters like Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett and a teacher who drinks Tennyson Tea, readers will get thinly veiled lessons describing alliteration, meter, and metaphor. The mystery is a bit slow to unfold and plotlines overlap with Edgar always making observations that cause him to seem way older than a fifth grader. However, readers who stick with it will appreciate the conclusion that itself is a poetic play. The author successfully delivers the theme that a poem is truly a gift. A good springboard for introducing poetry units.-Cheryl Ashton, Amherst Public Library, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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