By James Patterson and Keir Graff
4RBooks: 5/6, grades 4-7
Amazon rating: 4.3/5, grades 3-7
Good Reads: 4.03/5
Common Sense Media: Not yet reviewed
318 pages
Synopsis:
Minerva Keen is a very intelligent 12-year-old girl who lives a fun life in an historic apartment building in Chicago. She lives with her 11-year-old brother Heck and their cousin Bizzy who is watching them while their parents are in Australia.
Minerva’s life is suddenly thrown into chaos when her elderly neighbor Kermit, who she regularly played chess with, suddenly passes out in the middle of their game. It is later determined that he has been poisoned. Not only is Minerva scared, but she is now a possible suspect. More poisonings, some leading to death, follow and Minerva seems to be connected to most of them. She begins to work with Detective Taylor to solve the case.
Minerva gets help from her chef-inspired, accident-prone brother Heck, and silent Santos, an extremely quiet, extremely large student at her school, who happens to be much smarter than anyone realizes. Also, more timid than anyone could imagine. They work together to track down the culprit before more victims are discovered.
Parental Guidance: medium
People in the apartment building are being poisoned. Some are dying right in front of Minerva.
Minerva and Heck’s parents are in Australia. They are being watched by their older cousin who is preoccupied with her doctoral dissertation. Their parents seem to have a minimal amount of interest in their children, are gone a lot, and don’t seem in a rush to get home.
Chapter 45: To get their adult cousin out of the house so they could continue their detecting, Heck created a gas inducing dinner the night before. This chapter is 6 pages describing the sounds and smells of farts which eventually force the cousin to flee and study elsewhere.
The final payoff chapters find the detective club in an apartment filled with poisonous spiders, snakes, and other reptiles. They get loose and the children are surrounded and in dire need of an escape. I could imagine this being a little nightmare inducing for some children.
Minerva, Heck, and Santos have a little more freedom to roam the streets then many parents would prefer for their children.
Recommendation:
Overall, this was a fun read. It’s an intriguing story with interesting characters. The story is paced well, with short chapters, making it an accessible book for all levels of readers. Certain children will find the gross chapters gross, while others will find them hilarious. Some children will be disturbed by the scary chapters, while others will be excited. It is inevitable that this will be the first book in the series. Minerva is a fun character and her detective team is a creative blend of smarts, talents, and silliness to entertain almost any reader.
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