I So Don't Do Mysteries
Barrie Summy, Author . Delacorte $15.99 (264p) ISBN 978-0-385-73602-2
About to be shipped off to San Diego while her widower dad goes on his honeymoon, seventh-grader Sherry (short for Sherlock) Holmes Baldwin prepares to put up a fight when she is contacted by her mother's ghost. Killed in the line of duty, her cop mother is flunking out of an afterlife law-enforcement academy, and she needs Sherry's help to crack a case at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. So what if Sherry, a self-proclaimed screwup, is nothing like Nancy Drew? (“Do I look like a strawberry-blond-haired teenage detective?” wisecracking Sherry demands.) Summy keeps the fizz in her effervescent premise for most of this debut novel, using a punchy first-person narration; story lines involving romances, movie stars, rhinos and egotistical chefs; and various eccentricities, including a late grandfather who assumes the form of a wren. Although the plot becomes too convoluted even for screwball comedy, Sherry remains entertaining, and readers will hope for a second caper. Ages 10–up.
Reviewed on: 10/20/2008
Release date: 12/01/2008
Genre: Children's
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 9780375891359
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 9780375893735
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 9780375899478
Paperback - 264 pages - 9780385736039
Library Binding - 264 pages - 9780385905831
Paperback - 304 pages - 9780385737913
Library Binding - 276 pages - 9780385905848
Hardcover - 294 pages - 9780385737906
Hardcover - 276 pages - 9780385736046
Paperback - 304 pages - 9780385736053
Hardcover - 264 pages - 9780385736022