Swiped

Deborah Dowson is a Canadian children’s librarian living in Harvard,
Massachusetts.

Middle-school friends Trevor, Nick, and Robyn are being robbed of their
lunches. Robyn is quick to suspect a boy she doesn’t like, but the
others want to look for proper clues. As they continue to “lose their
lunches” and work to solve this mystery, a valuable book that contains
a signed picture of hockey great Wayne Gretzky goes missing. The kids
become concerned over the lack of money for new books and the fact that
their librarian’s job is at risk due to budget constraints. They begin
to organize a fundraising literacy fair and book sale. When they
discover that some very valuable donated detective books have also gone
missing, they have a third mystery to solve.

Library budgets, missing books, stolen school lunches, smelly
sandwiches, and stinky lockers may not be the most exciting topics for a
mystery story, even one aimed at middle-schoolers, but this could have
worked if the characters had been more engaging. Unfortunately, the
characters are dull and the plot doesn’t offer enough action or
suspense to support a continuing interest in the mystery. In the story,
both cases of theft result in a positive outcome for the school,
creating the impression that in this situation at least, the end (food
for underprivileged kids) justifies the means (taking things that
don’t belong to you). Not a first-choice purchase.