Who would possibly want every banana in town?! Join Detective Small in solving this fruit-filled mystery. The story is told through a series of clever rhyming couplets, littered with new words for your child to learn, like 'gumshoe', 'dastardly', 'kumquat', 'entrepreneur', and 'culprit'. There is also repetition whenever the detective is "Back in his office, up on the ninth floor, Detective Small bolted the locks on the door. He kicked off his boots, wiggled his toes, pulled out a hanky to wipe his nose." The pictures of charcoal-pencil and water colors change size and shape, from a small circle in the middle of the page, to a full page spread, and even different sized panels like a comic book. The characters are cute cartoon animals that your child will recognize, such as panda bear store owners, a beaver newspaper boy, an alligator fruit stand vendor, a hippopotamus policeman, and many more.
There is also plenty of humor to engage and entertain your little one, such as the 'rewards' or yogurt (vanilla only!) and tufu that the store offers for catching the banana caper, or the lineup at the police station of people who looks like bananas. Your child may have fun guessing which of the characters is really stealing all the bananas, or watching Detective Small use deductive reasoning skills. Once you've read it all the way through, you can discuss the main lesson with your child, "It's easy-peasy, when you have ALL the facts!"
I read this book to my five-year-old friend Nick one afternoon, and all he wanted to do afterwards was 'solve crimes'. At first, I would just hide objects and give him good clues as to where to find them. After awhile, however, I wised up and started making deals like, "brush your teeth and I'll tell you the next clue" - and it worked! I made sure the final crime solved that day ended up with Nick in bed, feeling like a real gumshoe.
--Audra
