Tangled Up in Luck

October 25, 2021
The chemistry between an unlikely team of cued-white amateur sleuths propels this humorous romp. Volleyball star “Slayer Sloane” Osburn, 13, views any association with curly red–haired outcast Amelia Miller-Poe, 12, as “guaranteed social death.” But when the seventh graders are paired on a school project to investigate a cold case involving missing jewels dating from 1887 in their small town of Wauseon, Ohio, the two find both a kinship and a combined flair for investigation. Though an enemies-to-friends dynamic may be familiar territory, Wyatt (Ernestine, Catastrophe Queen) gives it fresh treatment here, especially in the rounded motivations of these two characters: Sloane, recovering from her mother’s recent death from cancer, and hiding her inner Doctor Who–watching nerd; and Amelia, whose bossy, perfect family talks at her and whose dramatic gifts previously remained unappreciated. While details about the lost fortune of self-made millionaire Jacob Hoäl occasionally bog down the narrative, the witty voice, clever details, and winning characters, such as Sloane’s grannies who run an illegal bingo operation, compensate. The satisfying mystery and authentic friendship offer momentum for the series’ next installment. Ages 8–12.

November 1, 2021
Grades 4-6 While on a seventh-grade class field trip, students are paired off to work on researching a local mystery from the late 1800s involving a hidden treasure. Popular Sloane is dismayed to learn that her partner in crime solving will be unconventional Amelia (aka the Yeti). And Amelia is equally unhappy to be paired with "Miss Perfect." It was Sloane who initially referred to her as the Yeti, and Sloane would like to apologize to Amelia for that . . . but she can't quite bring herself to do it. Gradually, their prickly relationship mellows to a tentative alliance that holds the promise of friendship. After all, there's nothing like facing a slingshot attack in an abandoned cemetery to help a girl clarify who her real friends are. Is someone using this detective duo to unravel the clues in hopes of collecting the treasure? Although many of the characters (however colorful) seem to be quickly sketched, both Sloane and Amelia are more fully portrayed, emerging as interesting individuals, each struggling with her own issues but willing to give the other a chance.

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January 14, 2022

Gr 5-7-Familiar themes of adolescent angst, mean-girl shenanigans, budding friendship, and the loss of a parent thread through a complex mystery. Dramatic, flamboyant Amelia Miller-Poe feels like a misfit in her perfect family; volleyball star Sloane Osburn misses her deceased mother and feels uncomfortable in the sports crowd. Both are unlikely partners in a seventh grade assignment to discover the location of jewels missing for 130 years from an estate in their Ohio town. Their research leads them to an old mansion, now a bed-and-breakfast, and the discovery of clues about two feuding families whose descendants are seemingly long gone. Working together, at first reluctantly, the girls form a tentative bond that must withstand interference from a classmate looking to sabotage their fragile friendship and exploit their work in completing the assignment. Lurking behind it all is an unidentified, menacing character who ultimately confronts the girls just as they are about to find the jewels. An included cast of characters at the beginning of the book is necessary to keep straight the multigenerational players in the mystery, and the ending suggests the possibility of a sequel or series. Amelia and Sloane are both cued as white. VERDICT An unlikely premise that nevertheless conveys a positive message about loyalty, belonging, and friendship.-Marie Orlando

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Starred review from October 1, 2021
Can a popular athlete and the class oddball find $13 million worth of missing 19th-century jewels? Sloane--aka Slayer Sloane, the Volleyball Queen--really, really doesn't want to do the class project with Amelia, who dresses up in costumes and makes melodramatic YouTube videos. Amelia doesn't care about staying under the radar like a normal seventh grader, which makes her a target of bullies. But Amelia does have some pretty good ideas about how to handle the assignment: namely, solving "the Mysterious Case of the Missing Jewels." Way back in 1887, two best friends in rural northwest Ohio had a falling out: Thomas Kerr, circus clown and carpenter, stole fabulous jewels from millionaire Jacob Ho�l, after which both men died in the same tragic train crash. As the secrets of the past unfold, the girls (who are both White) learn of two tragic and angry families in which people in generation after generation died young. Even as their friendship grows, a foreshadowing narrator makes clear they'll eventually be brought to a dangerous crisis. The moral journey, unambiguous but not cloying, builds to a crescendo featuring a cinematic monologue as satisfying as hot soup on a cold day. The unraveling of the town's mysterious past is evocative of Louis Sachar's Holes. Funny, cheering, and narratively fulfilling. (Mystery. 9-12)

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