The Incredible Polly McDoodle

Sylvia Pantaleo is an associate professor of education, specializing in
children’s literature, at the University of Victoria. She is the
coauthor of Learning with Literature in the Canadian Elementary
Classroom.

This is the fourth book in the Polly McDoodle mystery series. Although
references are made to Polly’s previous adventures, readers do not
need to be familiar with the other three books.

Polly McDougall loves to draw (hence McDoodle) and her sketches assist
her and her detective partner, Kyle Clay, in identifying the thieves who
have been robbing mailboxes. Polly and Kyle have several suspects on
their list, including a Grade 7 classmate and her single mother; Mr.
Stone, their disagreeable substitute teacher, and his sister and her
boyfriend; and the Dell boys, two suspicious-behaving teenagers whose
father is in prison. Other subplots include Polly’s concern about her
new friend Mandy (who doesn’t eat and is very lonely for her parents,
who are working in refugee camps in Africa) and the change in her own
family structure (Polly’s brother Shawn is playing hockey in
Saskatchewan).

Woodbury’s writing style is easy to read. And, in addition to the
mystery, she introduces issues associated with growing up, change, and
identity. However, the pacing of the plot is slow, and at times Polly is
overly introspective to be a believable character of her age. And
further, the ending is flat: there is no surprise when the identities of
the robbers are revealed. Not a first-choice purchase.