MONKEY WITH A TOOL BELT AND THE SILLY SCHOOL MYSTERY

Chico Bon Bon is back, his tool belt is strapped on, and he’s ready not only to fix anything that’s broken, but to solve a puzzling mystery at school, too.

On this particular school day, not everything that needs fixing is part of the mystery—Clark’s backpack rips and his chair breaks, some lockers need tweaking, and a fountain is leaking, all of which Chico takes care of handily. But when the class visits the library, half the books are missing, and when they return to their classroom, Ms. Crabtree can’t find her ruler, and many of his class’s items for show-and-tell are nibbled. As the school day progresses, the number of items missing or chewed increases, and Chico works on finding clues and puzzling out what’s happened. In the end, he manages to find a solution that suits everyone…and that uses all his tools, of course. Monroe’s illustrations are as delightful to pore over as usual, with changes of perspective and lots of quirky details, especially in the scene in which the mystery is finally revealed.

This is one detective/Mr. Fix It that readers will love to apprentice to.