The Case of The Real McCoys
Fourth grader Moxie McCoy, girl detective extraordinaire (preferably known as her detective name: Slim) is in the market for a new best friend. Her previous best friend and co-detective, Maude, has moved away, and Moxie is missing her a lot. She decides to interview her classmates to find a new best friend—someone who also hates soup and loves slugs, of course. But when the school mascot, a fuzzy toy owl named Eddie the Owl, suddenly goes missing on the day of the school awards, Moxie is interrupted in her quest and is instead faced with her biggest mystery to date. Will she be able to solve it on her own and without her best friend and fellow detective?
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Moxie tries to reassure her little brother Milton, who is a super smart first grader (he reads middle school level books) and goes to the same school as Moxie (Tiddlywhump Elementary School), that she is on the case of finding Eddie, and he gets involved helping her. Milton is the type of student who never gets into trouble, and Moxie sometimes wonders if he is a real McCoy. In fact, he is tied for the school award of the Golden Owl, which is for the student with the highest number of Owl Points (Moxie makes a point to not lose more than two a day, if that, thank you very much). Their dad works at a bicycle shop, and their mom is an entomologist who is always away studying and finding rare insects.
Moxie tries to reassure her little brother Milton, who is a super smart first grader (he reads middle school level books) and goes to the same school as Moxie (Tiddlywhump Elementary School), that she is on the case of finding Eddie, and he gets involved helping her. Milton is the type of student who never gets into trouble, and Moxie sometimes wonders if he is a real McCoy. In fact, he is tied for the school award of the Golden Owl, which is for the student with the highest number of Owl Points (Moxie makes a point to not lose more than two a day, if that, thank you very much). Their dad works at a bicycle shop, and their mom is an entomologist who is always away studying and finding rare insects.
At school, Moxie is not afraid to bend the rules a bit (hence the aforementioned loss of Owl Points), but she has her heart set on getting the highest prize at the school this year: the Eddie Award. It goes to the student who best demonstrates courage, patience, and wisdom, and the student gets to have his or her picture posted outside the principal’s office on the Wall of Honor. In fact, her best friend Maude has won the award twice before.
But with Eddie missing on the exact same day that the owl awards are given out, everyone in school is shocked. Who would do such a thing to their cherished stuffed animal mascot? Moxie has some ideas and gets busy pointing fingers at the wrong people. But when an anonymous tipster blames her little brother, Milton, the mystery takes a personal turn. Can girl detective Moxie narrow down her suspect list and figure out the guilty party in time to clear her brother’s name before the award ceremony that afternoon? Or will she need some help?
The husband-and-wife team of author Matthew Swanson and illustrator Robbi Behr have created a gem of a book. The Real McCoys is a very entertaining and attention-keeping middle grade novel. Kids will love the rich characters and the element of mystery, and won’t want to put the story down. Matthew and Robbi really capture elementary school life with both their characters and their drawings. Plus, the story teaches good lessons about honesty and kindness and appreciating your siblings that are perfectly geared for kids this age. There are also some great laugh-out-loud moments, especially between the principal and Moxie, that parents will appreciate, too. Readers will want to know more about what happens to The Real McCoys after they finish this book!
The Real McCoys is on B&N bookshelves now!