Children's Book Review: Detective Blue

Detective Blue
Written by:  Steve Metzger
Illustrated by: Tedd Arnold
Published by: Orchard Books, 2011

from goodreads.com:
Miss Muffet is missing . . . and Detective Blue is on the case!

"Today started like any other day. The dish ran away with the spoon."

 Little Boy Blue is all grown up, and he's a detective working to find Miss Muffet. Join in the fun as Detective Blue tries to crack the case with the help of his nursery rhyme friends. The fun is never-ending as Detective Blue interrogates grown-up nursery rhyme characters in order to solve the Missing Muffet Mystery. Kids, parents, and teachers can find a list of referenced nursery rhymes and go back into the story to find the characters.
 
* My kids pretty  much know all of the classic nursery rhymes and fairy tales.  Recently we've been reading fairy tales told from different character point of views.  I found this book at the library and thought it looked like a cute take on nursery rhymes.  Plus, my daughter is beginning to be interested in mystery chapter books and I thought this might be a nice mystery picture book. Your children have to be familiar with nursery rhymes to catch all of the references and humor in the story. Written in a comic book-like format, it tells the story of Detective Blue as he searches for the missing Miss Muffett.  As for the illustrations, just from the cover my husband was able to identify the illustrator, Tedd Arnold, as the one who illustrated Parts.  We're also familiar with his work in the Fly Guy series, which my daughter enjoys.  Overall, this was a cute story that we all enjoyed.  However, my daughter had a difficult time with the ending and was a bit confused with the cross-over of characters (don't want to give away spoilers!).
 
Family Rating:  1 1/2 thumbs up!