New books
Knightley and Son by Rohan Gavin
[Bloomsbury USA, $16.99; available March 4]
Sherlock Holmes meets the Hardy Boys in this brand new comedy that delivers big laughs and big adventures.
The once highly in-demand detective Alan Knightley has just woken up after an unexplained incident kept him asleep for four years. While he was out cold, his son, Darkus, took it upon himself to read of all his dad's old cases, and he's learned a lot about the art of detection. It's a good thing, too - because suddenly the duo find themselves caught up in a crazy conspiracy that involves a group of villainous masterminds (who keep appearing and then vanishing), some high-speed car chases, and a bestselling book with the power to make people do terrible, terrible things. But because Alan is still suffering the effects of his coma, he tends to, well, fall asleep at the worst possible moments. Meaning that young Darkus might just have to solve this mystery... by himself.
We love Timmy Failure!
Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done
by Stephan Pastis
[Candlewick Press, $14.99; available Feb. 25]
He doesn't like to pull rank. To reveal that he's this guy: Timmy Failure, founder, president, and CEO of the greatest detective agency in town, perhaps the nation. But he is. And he's about to crack the biggest case of his generation: a school competition to find a stolen globe. It's his ticket to bringing home a $500 prize, which is guaranteed to set him up for life.
But someone is clearly trying to game the system. Hoodwink. Con. Defraud. So it's up to Timmy Failure, with the dubious help of Total, his lazy polar bear partner, and his unlikely new ally, eccentric Great-Aunt Colander, to find a way to avenge these shenanigans. Defeat this injustice. If he can only get his entry form in on time.
Katherine recommends:
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy
by Karen Foxlee
[Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, $16.99]
A luminous retelling of the Snow Queen, this is the story of unlikely heroine Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard who doesn't believe in anything that can't be proven by science. She and her sister Alice are still grieving for their dead mother when their father takes a job in a strange museum in a city where it always snows. On her very first day in the museum, Ophelia discovers a boy locked away in a long-forgotten room. He is a prisoner of Her Majesty the Snow Queen. And he has been waiting for Ophelia's help. As Ophelia embarks on an incredible journey to rescue the boy, everything that she believes will be tested. Along the way she learns more and more about the boy's own remarkable journey to reach her and save the world.
A story within a story, this is a modern-day fairy tale about the power of friendship, courage and love, and never ever giving up.
Just Jake by Jake Marcionette
[Grosset & Dunlap, $11.99]
Jake's life is turned upside down when his family moves from Florida to Maryland, where Jake must adapt to a new school. Jake has always ranked the kids at school in his hand-made, humorous "Kid Cards"; and when he arrives at his new school, Jake starts building a new collection, befriending as many people as he can while staying under the radar from the school bully. But what happens when the school bully decides Jake's next in line for annihilation and his Kid Cards get into the wrong hands?!! Just Jake is the product of a writer talented well beyond his years.
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