Pierre the Maze Detective: The Search for the Stolen Maze Stone

Kamigaki, founder of the Hiroshima-based design collective IC4Design, pits a dapper Sherlock Holmes–esque boy named Pierre against the villainous Phantom Thief, who has stolen a Maze Stone with “the power to turn everything into a maze.” Those mazes fill the pages that follow, as readers try to trace paths between “Start” and “Goal” signs through a museum, outdoor cafe, and more (in one spread, children must wind their way around more than 100 hot-air balloons). The paths themselves, slightly lightened as though with a pencil eraser, aren’t always easy to distinguish from their busy surroundings, but the Where’s Waldo? level of detail in the illustrations, along with secondary objects to locate and the unfolding mystery itself, ought to provide hours worth of entertainment for eagle-eyed readers. Ages 7–11. (Sept.)