Detective Beans: and the Case of the Missing Hat

Gr 1-4–Detective Beans (known as Jellybean by his mom) can solve any crime—as long as he makes it home in time for dinner. When Beans’s favorite hat goes missing, he knows he’s the cat to find it, for as he says, “I can’t go detecting without my hat! It’s unprofessional!” And so begins a wild chase that leads him to a wise and wacky bird, who ominously tells him, “The wind giveth and the wind taketh away,” a pair of twin kittens searching for their own pair of matching hats, a magician with a magic hat, a jazz club with a diva hiding a secret behind a hat, a restaurant that serves food in hats, and much more. As Detective Beans encounters each quirky character, he gathers clues and learns that the same hat can mean something different for everyone who dons it. The book is fast-paced and exciting, with a delightful surprise at the end. The dialogue and illustrations pay tribute to the hardboiled detective stories of the 1930s and 1940s, which children won’t know but still enjoy here. The artwork depicts adorable animals against sharp, bright backgrounds. ­