February 2024, Independently Published, 70 pages, Paperback, review copy
Book summary
Sebastian and Telly are on the case and need YOUR help to solve the mystery!
Like stale cheese pizza for lunch, every Middle school is going to have a bit of gossip too. And no lie travels faster than one about the most popular kid in school.
When Blakeney's star lacrosse player finds out an embarrassing rumor about him floating around the school halls, he panics and hides away from his own pep rally.
With only hours before the big game, what will he do?
There's only one option, call on the school's detective duo Sebastian and Telly to find out who's stirring up all the gossip.
Nayu's thoughts
School stories are usually a hit with me, and Sebastian the Kid Detective: Gossip Gone Haywire is no exception. First of all can we admire the cover art. The rest of the illustrations all have this style which I find really appealing. Seeing the flicker of another illustration whenever I turned the page made me smile and wonder what element of the story would get highlighted through Jalen's drawings.
The story itself is a very curious one, I mean what else would have a team member too scared to play a game? Sebastian and his best friend Telly had to find out the root of the issue which had some unexpected turns. Unravelling a well-kept secret takes team-work and spotting seemingly non-existant clues that most people would fail to grasp. The truth of the mátter relates well to image, and how concerned some people are of maintaining a set image when really their interests are in an unexpected direction which is all I can say without spoiling the tale. Mean kids will always been mean but justice does get served eventually.
The one criticism was partly style/narrative as it took me out of the immersion: most of the conversations rather than being integrated in the story with he said blah blah blah have the person's name in bold then the speech. If it was done for the entire book it might make a bit of sense: it might be easier for some readers to read it like this and I've seen similar in other books but some sentences were seamlessly added to the rest of the narration without this style which made it stand out even more when it was done. If that was more consistent I wouldn't have noticed it as much in what is a solid and engaging tale. I'm eagerly awaiting book 2!
Find out more on Jalen's website.
Suggested read
Other detective tales include Blog tour - Review & Guest Blog Post: The Case of the Exploding Loo by Rachel Hamilton (Children’s, 9 years +, 10E/10E)
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