April 25, 2025
First I’d like to thank everyone for the outpouring of kind words in emails, cards, calls, texts, and more I got when sharing my Professional and Personal News post. Thank you to my community (even those I’ve never met in person!) Each note was felt and cherished. I am so grateful.
Everyone knows that reading scores are down post-COVID and our kids need extra support to get reading (Dare I suggest not destroying the Department of Education?) But I’d like to take a moment to share a somewhat different point of view and congratulate editors, writers, and illustrators for absolutely stepping up with some out-of-this-world Early Readers.
Reading is a challenge for so many kids and often they get left out of the joy of reading. But! With books like Detective Stanley, I am less worried about this next generation of readers. I’ll get into the plot and cuteness in a second, but I really want to emphasize the way this book encourages the reader. Using clear, bright graphics depicting Stanley doing his thing (my favorite is watering his plants in his underpants), really helps the reader match the word to the action. It sounds simple, but it’s totally brilliant. I wish these types of books had been around when I was teaching my lil brother (who just gave me a nephew and niece! Thanks, bro! Congratulations to me!) to read. He and I would have been utterly delighted with Detective Stanley.
Ok now for the actual review. Sorry NOT sorry about reveling in the delight of early readers! Stanley is retired and ready to eat his pancakes. But when he’s called back into action, he discovers the museum that was “robbed” isn’t missing anything! His peer, Superintendent Shiro (a cute rhino) gets all in a jealous tizzy and imprisons Stanley for the theft of a watch, (Stanley didn’t do it, y’all) and Stanley still solves the crime and closes the case. But his pancakes are cold.
Bits and Pieces: The illustrations were done digitally and y’all know I’m not always a fan of the digital. But we needed these really crisp lines and bold colors. Digital was the perfect fit for this project.
Not Sure About: Why do we have to wait for book 2? This is America. We have no patience or fortitude to not get our way immediately.
Favorite Part(s): I already told you! Were you even paying attention? I’m not gonna say it again.
