FICTION

Officer Panda: Fingerprint Detective

by Ashley CROWLEY
illus. by Ashley Crowley. 32p. HarperCollins/Harper. Oct. 2015. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780062366269.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 2—Officer Panda sets out from the police station on his bicycle and encounters enormous fingerprints imbedded into the illustrations of haystacks, trees, clouds, animals, the moon, and even in his house. He is perplexed as to where they have come from, but possibly not as perplexed as readers will be when he turns face-out and accuses viewers of having left the prints strewn about the book. This, frankly, makes no sense, as readers are clearly not responsible. Fingerprints could well make interesting illustration elements, but they cannot carry a nonsensical plot premise to a satisfying conclusion.
VERDICT A set of fingerprints does not a mystery make.
Reviewed by Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY
Officer Panda investigates fingerprints that dot the landscape and animals of his beat. His questioning yields no solid clues, but when he discovers them in his own home, he concludes that the prints belong to the reader. Amusing black-and-white stick sketches accented with smudgy fingerprints and daubs of color, as well as appended facts about fingerprints, give this otherwise ho-hum tale more value.
 , Jun 01, 2015

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