Review: Humpty Dumpty Jr: Hardboiled Detective: The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost by Nate Evans, Paul Hindman and Vince Evans

After reading the first installment of the Humpty Dumpty Jr.: Hardboiled Detective series, The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop, my daughter and I couldn’t wait to start the second. The first book was full of action, humor, and vivid illustrations (you can read our review here), and we had such high expectations for the second book. And Humpty Dumpty Jr. Hardboiled Detective: The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost didn’t disappoint. In The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost, the wise-cracking (pun intended) detective, Humpty Dumpty, Jr., and his sidekick Rat are back and ready to solve another case. In the first book, Rat was a scrubby kid without a home, and while he’s still a little rough around the edges, he’s cleaned up since Humpty Dumpty, Jr. and Patty Cake, New Yolk City’s most popular baker, took him under their wing. Humpty Dumpty, Jr. really wants Rat to go to school, but Rat is against the idea–until the perfect opportunity presents itself in the form of a case that needs to be solved.

Princess Lily, a student at Merlin’s Institute for the Knowledge of Everything, arrives at Humpty Dumpty, Jr.’s office in the middle of a rain storm looking for help. Her father, Prince Balto, encountered a ghost in the halls of the school, was found unconscious, and hasn’t come out of it. The ghost wanders the halls moaning, “Give me my magic!” When Humpty Dumpty, Jr. and Rat accompany Lily to Merlin’s Institute to investigate, Merlin (yes, King Arthur’s Merlin) is convinced that Rat is the next King Arthur and needs a little training so he can remove Excalibur from the stone and anvil. Rat’s enrollment in the school gives Humpty Dumpty, Jr. access to the school to find out more about the ghost and why Merlin’s so hostile, as well as to restore Prince Balto back to health.

As in the first book, chaos ensues whenever Humpty Dumpty, Jr. attempts to use his egg-beater magic wand, providing a lot of laughs. When the identity of the ghost is revealed, there’s another action scene that made it impossible for us to put the book down. And it’s hard to put into words how wonderful the illustrations are, perfectly portraying the action and including little details that make the characters come to life.

Sourcebooks is targeting middle school boys with this series, but again I think it will attract a wider audience. With the addition of Princess Lily (who I hope returns in future installments), young girls see a princess who isn’t all frilly and weak and waiting for a man to bail her out of a crisis. When it counts, Lily takes charge, and she makes a suitable role model for young girls.

The next Humpty Dumpty Jr.: Hardboiled Detective book is slated for release in May 2009. Apparently, the book includes ninjas. You can bet The Girl and I will read that one!

Here’s The Girl’s thoughts on The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost. This time, she wrote the review all by herself, without any prompting from her mother.

I liked the part where Humpty Dumpty, Jr. turned mini. [Anna: He was shrunk “smaller than a chocolate egg” (page 76)] I liked that part because it was really funny and cool. When Humpty Dumpty, Jr. dressed up like a janitor and had to clean up throw up, it was cool. I also liked the part when Rat dressed up in the dance suit. Us girls will like this book because Lily is a cool character, and she’s a girl.

I made my mom put in this picture. It was my favorite from the first book.

Watch the trailer for The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost here.
Watch the trailer for The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop here.

Disclosure:  We received a copy of The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost from Sourcebooks for review purposes. I am an Amazon associate.

© 2008 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: Humpty Dumpty Jr: Hardboiled Detective: The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop by Nate Evans, Paul Hindman and Vince Evans

Sourcebooks, Inc. is targeting middle-grade boys with the Humpty Dumpty Jr.: Hardboiled Detective series, but I think it will appeal to a much larger audience. Humpty Dumpty Jr. is a hardboiled egg and private investigator who solves various crimes in New Yolk City. (Yes, there are tons of egg puns, but they are silly, not distracting. My 8-year-old daughter laughed at each one and enjoyed pointing them out on her own.) He’s haunted by the only case he’s never “cracked,” which is the one involving his famous father.

In the series opener, The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop, Humpty Dumpty Jr., armed with an egg-beater magic wand that never seems to work right for him, must find out who kidnapped New Yolk City’s best baker, Patty Cake of the Pat-A-Cake bakery. He meets up with Rat, a homeless boy befriended by Patty Cake, and they eventually decide to work together. As they follow numerous clues, the pair run into an interesting cast of characters: Peppermint Pete, Johnny Cakes, the Queen and Jack of Hearts, Crusty Crinkles, and Mr. Fum, among others.

My daughter and I both enjoyed the book. At 120 pages, it wasn’t a tedious read for us; we finished it in under a week, reading a couple of chapters a day before her bedtime. My daughter has pretty much outgrown picture books, but because she’s still not ready to read only chapter books without pictures, The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop was perfect. The Humpty Dumpty Jr. books have an illustration on every page, and they do a great job showing the action in the story. The drawings of the bad guys are creepy, and while the three-headed monster at the end is not scary enough to frighten young readers, it certainly looks mean.

The end of the book was so full of action that my daughter didn’t want to stop reading (and neither did I). She was able to read the book on her own, though we took turns reading pages so we could enjoy it together. If you have a child right around my daughter’s age, I’d definitely recommend the book. We’ve already started book two, The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost, and we’re enjoying it so far.

Here’s The Girl’s take on The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop in her own words (I asked her questions about the book so she’d say a little more about what she thought):

I liked this book because it was funny. My favorite part was when Johnny Cakes ran down the street naked except for a little bit of butter over his private parts. My favorite character was Humpty Dumpty Jr. the hardboiled detective because he is funny when he messes up using his magic wand, which is an egg beater. My second favorite part was when Rat’s legs turned into rock candy. I liked the funny egg jokes in the story, like “New Yolk City” and “unscramble the case.” The three-headed chocolate cake monster was cool. I wanted to read the book all in one night but my mom made me go to bed and read more the next day.

Watch a trailer of The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop here.
Watch a trailer of The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost (review coming soon!) here.

Disclosure:  We received a free copy of The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop from Sourcebooks for review purposes. I am an Amazon associate.

© 2008 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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