THE MYSTERIOUS COLLECTION OF DR. DAVID HARLEYSON

Clever gouache paintings and lovely, attractive design can’t save this beckoning “mystery” from a fundamental problem: despite an invitation to help solve it, readers don’t have much left to do after the characters do their work. A young pig receives a letter from his artist uncle asking him and his father to peruse some portraits, identify the subjects, and—based on clues stuck to the back of them (travel tickets, playbills, etc.)—put them in order to reconstruct the artist’s yearlong travels and current plans. “That’s exactly what we did, and so can you!”—but the paintings are already in order and the final answer unavoidably spelled out. Readers do get to identify the portraits with wonderfully sophisticated clues and details for the fairytale and fable characters that guarantee participation and satisfaction. However, the implication that readers can themselves solve the bulk of the mystery is misleading and may cause some disappointment. (Picture book. 4-8)