Review by Booklist Review
In their second case (The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake, 2015), missing-food investigators (MFIs) Wilcox and Griswold have a poached as in stolen egg to find: Whatever the food, whatever the crime, MFIs make the bad guys do the time. On the eve of Farmer Ed's Big Speggtacular, Henrietta Hen awakens to discover her egg Penny is missing. Wilcox and Griswold hurry down to the chicken coop, where they find a distinctively written ransom note. The detective duo make the rounds on the farm, interviewing suspects and collecting writing samples. Was Gabby Goose jealous of Henrietta's prize-winning eggs? Did Miss Rabbit snatch an egg for her carrot cake recipe? Something is definitely afoot, but it's not until the next day at the Big Speggtacular that the case cracks wide open. The short chapters, good use of white space, and plentiful illustrations make this series a great choice for newly independent readers. The egg-based mystery is appropriately hard-boiled in its style and well-stocked with groan-worthy puns that will draw kids in.--Smith, Julia Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A whodunit for newly independent readers with wordplay galore.Detective Wilcox and Capt. Griswold are two anthropomorphic mice on the crime beat at the farm. They are "Missing Food Investigators." The text that follows their story is broken up into some sections that emulate police logs and short chapters with narrative text and dialogue. Both parts, however, are laden with puns. "The poached egg" of the title is a stolen egg belonging to one Henrietta Hen. When she calls to report the crime Wilcox asks, "Did she fly the coop?" The MFIs interrogate various suspects about potential "fowl play" around the farm, including the loquacious Gabby Goose and Col. Peck, the rooster. Handwriting analysis and the thief's slip-up at an egg contest lead the rodent gumshoes to the culprit, a "rotten egg" indeed, by the end of the book. Cartoon illustrations bolster the humor of the text and will provide some context clues, though the layout is rather cluttered and the text is likely too complex in large, overwhelming text blocks for many new readers; kids readying themselves to move on to chapter books should find it a suitable challenge. A hard-boiled text for determined new readers in pursuit of wordplay. (Early reader. 7-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
