INSPECTOR HOPPER’S MYSTERY YEAR
by Doug Cushman & illustrated by Doug Cushman
Cushman offers a second helping of good, just-this-side-of-goofy stories for beginning readers, featuring Inspector Hopper and McBugg, introduced in Inspector Hopper (2000). Hauntings and disappearances figure in this four-story collection, one for each of the seasons. In autumn, suitably enough, a ghost appears to have taken up residence in a pumpkin. In winter the doctor can’t be found; in spring a young bug has wandered off; in summer some sheet music has mysteriously gone missing. Cushman drops visual clues to let readers participate in the solutions to the mysteries, sight gags to keep the stories lively, as well as other clues to help them solve any mysteries among the words they are reading. The text is challenging enough, with good pacing and drama: “A cold wind rustled the trees. Dry leaves crackled and crunched. ‘It is very spooky here,’ said McBugg. ‘I wonder if ghosts really do live here.’ ” Cushman also makes the bug world a pretty appealing place, with its fine colors, merry gesticulations, everyday happenings, and doubtless the only mealy bug in existence that sports luxurious mustachios and a dapper bowler hat. (Easy reader. 4-8)