Gillian Goerz

Easily one of my favorite books of the year, it’s adorable and smart.

Fantastically illustrated, the characters each had their own style and their emotions came through loud and clear in their expressions. I found myself really noticing and appreciating the backgrounds, too, there’s such a sense of place with the neighborhood and things like the overhead map of the pool.

I very much enjoyed the mystery, I just love how Shirley’s brain works, she’s more than a little brilliant. The show more reveal is so satisfying, too, this isn’t just finding out who done it, you learn why, there’s genuine emotional depth to it.

Maybe most of all, I loved the friendship between Jamila and Shirley, the rough patch they experience was so well written, there’s a moment where Jamila learns more about Shirley and it kind of breaks your heart, but then there’s this wonderful growth from both girls that’ll leave a smile on your face. show less

Oh my goodness, what an absolute delight! Pint-sized Shirley Bones taking advantage of the age-old kid superpower -- the grapevine, and her perfect foil: Jamila -- smart, athletic and adventurous. Love the family dynamics, the way the kids argue for more independence, the way they help each other out and the interesting things that draw friends together. Some of the illustrations are just absolutely breathtaking -- there's something about the light that feels like looking through a window. show more Characters are also wonderfully drawn. show less

When Shirley Bones and Jamila Waheed meet, Jamila is simply hoping to get out of science camp for the summer. Shirley is also hoping to avoid the dance camp for which her mother has registered her, and she uses her extraordinary powers of observation and reason to find a solution to their mutual problem. The ten-year-old girls have mothers that want them to socialize more, like their older siblings do. Jamila, who is new in her Toronto neighborhood wants to play ball at the nearby basketball show more court and hopes to meet some new friends there. Shirley has trouble making friends, she misses social cues and sometimes bluntly points out her schoolmates’ faults to them. But she’s great at predicting when a teacher is about to give a pop quiz. Some of the kids think she’s a showoff. Many of them call her a weirdo.

Shirley’s mother convinces Jamila’s mother to let the two spend the summer together on mutual recognizance at the basketball court if they walk straight there and back and don’t leave the court. They agree. While Jamila shoots hoops, Shirley sits on a bench reading a science textbook or looking over odd things that she’s brought with her like a set of lemon juice solutions to test their reaction to sunlight. Because she doesn’t explain why she’s doing these things Jamila begins to wonder about this new friend. Then Jamila notices “ a lot of kids seemed to be showing up at the court to meet Shirley. Sometimes they’d bring her things. Sometimes she’d bring things for them.” Shirley says she is helping the kids solve problems because she is a detective.

A crisis comes when a boy begs Shirley to come to the municipal pool. Someone has stolen his backpack with his pet gecko inside. At first, she refuses because it would mean she and Jamila would have to break the agreement with their mothers if they left the basketball court. It’s a moral dilemma. Should they help the kidnapped pet lizard even if it causes them to break the rules?

In addition to being a great kid’s detective story with characters that recall Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Goerz tells and draws a tale of friendship’s joys and difficulties with realistic depictions of how to successfully negotiate differences between a diverse group of peers and with parents and siblings. show less

children's middlegrade graphic novel (4th grade and up) - two 5th graders meet by chance at a garage sale and one of them quickly hatches a plan to allow each to carry out the activities they want to do (basketball and supersleuthing) instead of dance and science summer camps.

This is a super sweet story featuring a 10-y.o. girl version of Sherlock Holmes, her new acquaintance (incidentally brown-skinned and Muslim) Jamila, and a diverse group of kids going through their own issues and who show more also could use some friends. The illustrations are perfectly appealing, the text is just right; very highly recommended. show less