West Meadow Detectives: The Case of the Snack Snatcher

“The school kitchen was a mess. It was also a crime scene.” Myron, a third grader with autism, narrates this series opener, which follows his efforts to identify a snack thief at his new school. Myron’s logic-driven outlook lends a hardboiled edge to the mystery; playing Watson to Myron’s Holmes is his hyperactive classmate Hajrah. With a cast that’s both ethnically and developmentally diverse, this school-day caper should entertain a broad range of readers, while also opening eyes to the perspectives of those not like themselves. “You think you have me all figured out?” growls a suspect at one point. “Not at all,” replies Myron. “You’re a very complex person.” Happily, the same is true of Myron and his classmates; while the conceit of a sleuth with autism has become borderline cliché, O’Donnell’s characters are more than their diagnoses. Ages 7–10. (Oct.)