"Edgar-winning Vaught, a neuropsychologist, has both personal and
professional experience to draw on in crafting a narrator who is
admirably smart and resilient despite an 'itchy' brain and a compulsion
to count things." --Booklist (starred review)
"Deeply smart and considerate." --BCCB
"An absorbing mystery." --Kirkus Reviews
"A strong addition to help diversify realistic fiction collections to
include neuroatypical characters and heroines." --School Library
Journal
In this Edgar Award-winning novel by mystery superstar Susan Vaught,
Jesse is on the case when money goes missing from the library and her
dad is looking like the #1 suspect.
I could see the big inside of my Sam-Sam. I had been training him for
252 days with mini tennis balls and pieces of bacon, just to prove to
Dad and Mom and Aunt Gus and the whole world that a tiny, fluffy dog
could do big things if he wanted to. I think my little dog always knew
he could be a hero.
I just wonder if he knew about me.
When the cops show up at Jesse's house and arrest her dad, she figures
out in a hurry that he's the #1 suspect in the missing library fund
money case. With the help of her (first and only) friend Springer, she
rounds up suspects (leading to a nasty confrontation with three
notorious school bullies) and asks a lot of questions. But she can't
shake the feeling that she isn't exactly cut out for being a
crime-solving hero. Jesse has a neuro-processing disorder, which means
that she's "on the spectrum or whatever." As she explains it, "I get
stuck on lots of stuff, like words and phrases and numbers and smells
and pictures and song lines and what time stuff is supposed to happen."
But when a tornado strikes her small town, Jesse is given the
opportunity to show what she's really made of--and help her dad.
Told with the true-as-life voice Susan Vaught is known for, this mystery
will have you rooting for Jesse and her trusty Pomeranian, Sam-Sam.
