MINERVA CLARK GOES TO THE DOGS

Her dad is always out of town on business, and her mother left with her boyfriend to teach yoga in Santa Fe, so Minerva is being raised by her three older brothers. A self-reliant expert on figuring things out, she is, in fact, a mystery solver. In the second of a projected series, a classmate of Minerva’s calls for help in finding a rare red diamond stolen from her ring. Corgi dogs, homing pigeons, an electronics class, Catholic school, kidnapping and a movie set aid and abet the tangled plot. Lots of IMing, cell phones and contemporary props keep the story current. References to actions in Minerva Gets a Clue (2005) fill in bits of background, but this title can stand on its own. Unfortunately, while the cover photo of a cute Corgi is appealing, it also may lead readers to think that the dog is Minerva. But this fairly typical teenager will take her place next to Nancy Drew as a prime crime case-cracker. (Fiction. 10-14)