The case of the missing tarts by Christee Curran-Bauer

I, personally, cannot stand faux-noir children's books. However, very few kids are aware of the origins of the trope and generally just see them as funny mysteries, so I am letting it go. I have a handful of fans of Doreen Cronin's mystery series, and this one looks like a fun series starter.

Crime strikes at the Pigeon Private Detectives, PPD, when someone sneaks in and steals Mama Pigeon's tarts! The chase is on and the pigeons are on the case, searching for clues, questioning suspects, and playing good bird/bad bird in interrogations. Clues are dropped, smushed, and smeared along the way and they finally find the culprit - and the secret ingredient for Mama Pigeon's award-winning jam tarts.

I reviewed an unfinished galley, but the finished book will be a blend of images, comic panels, and text, using a faux-typewritten font. The colors are soft blues, greens, and grays, with splashes of crimson jam. The characters are mostly birds, but there are a few other woodland critters scattered about the pages as well. Back matter includes a simple glossary and some facts about the animals included in the book.

One of the reasons I don't like faux-noir or police procedural-style books for kids is that it trivializes very real trauma and tragedy for many people. While some kids will see the pigeons playing "good bird/bad bird" and alternately yelling, threatening, and offering deals to their bemused suspects, as funny, kids who have had personal or familial trauma with the police will definitely find the idea of being threatened and shouted at by an unreasoning authority (they're not even official police! they just randomly picked out animals to suspect!) to be a bit too close to home.

Verdict: Whether this is something that will amuse or traumatize your audience will be something you'll have to decide based on your community. The blend of comic and text and the silly ending will generally be attractive to beginning readers and some libraries will find this a fun addition to their beginning chapter sections.

ISBN: 9781454943617; Published August 2023 by Union Square; ARC provided by publisher