Friday Barnes, Girl Detective

Gr 4–6—Nine-year-old Friday Barnes is used to being invisible. In fact she works hard at it. But when she uses the $50,000 she earned for solving a bank robbery in order to attend the exclusive Highcrest Academy, she discovers that her usual drab brown cardigans actually make her stand out from the other well-dressed students. She is soon noticed for another reason: her uncanny intellect and ability to solve crimes. Before long, she finds herself with a number of students willing to pay for her detective work, as well as her first nemesis: the handsome Ian Wainscott. Eventually even the headmaster asks for her help investigating sightings of a terrifying beast-man in the nearby swamp. The strength of this novel lies in its quirky, tongue-in-cheek writing style and pervasive humor. The characters are all delightfully eccentric, and middle grade readers will especially enjoy Friday's Holmesian analysis of the various crimes and the criminal's flaws, as well as the lengths she is willing to go in cracking the case (one episode has her trailing the school dog and sending his poop off to a lab in order to prove that he ate a fellow student's homework). The final mystery, focusing on the swamp yeti, is reminiscent of Scooby-Doo, with a surprise villain. The book ends with a cliff-hanger, followed by a teaser chapter from the sequel. Gosier's cartoony black-and-white drawings add appeal for a broad audience, although the vocabulary may make this a better fit for stronger readers.