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Overview
Have you ever had one of those moments? You know—you’re trying to find a stolen diamond pencil box for your beautiful butterfly customer, your mosquito witness won’t give you any information, and your clumsy scorpion assistant has just tampered with your only bit of evidence?
Joey Fly has those moments a lot. In fact, he’s probably having one right now. But that won’t stop him from solving the mystery in Creepy Crawly Crime, his fantastic first graphic novel!
Synopsis
Have you ever had one of those moments? You know—you’re trying to find a stolen diamond pencil box for your beautiful butterfly customer, your mosquito witness won’t give you any information, and your clumsy scorpion assistant has just tampered with your only bit of evidence?
Joey Fly has those moments a lot. In fact, he’s probably having one right now. But that won’t stop him from solving the mystery in Creepy Crawly Crime, his fantastic first graphic novel!
Publishers Weekly
In this first installment of the Joey Fly, Private Eye series, Reynolds (Buffalo Wings) and Numberman, who makes a wowser of a debut, marry the film noir spoof to the graphic novel, and the result has the sweet smell of success written all over it. The mystery takes readers to the big insect city, where most of the inhabitants are "normal everyday bugs just trying to put three feet in front of the others." But there are always a few rotten arthropods in the barrel, and keeping them in line is Joey Fly, a detective with a fedora, a sense of justice masquerading as cynicism, a flair for similes and really, really big eyes. Joey, clearly an adult, is given a sidekick, an impetuous but eager scorpion named Sammy Stingtail. The crime does get solved-it involves a stolen diamond pencil box-but like the best noirs, the particulars take a backseat to the irresistible interplay of moody visuals (Numberman wryly replicates the chiaroscuro mis-en-scène of Depression-era cinema) and hard-boiled patois ("The facts were starting to line up like centipedes at a shoe sale"). Ages 8-up. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
Publishers Weekly
In this first installment of the Joey Fly, Private Eye series, Reynolds (Buffalo Wings) and Numberman, who makes a wowser of a debut, marry the film noir spoof to the graphic novel, and the result has the sweet smell of success written all over it. The mystery takes readers to the big insect city, where most of the inhabitants are "normal everyday bugs just trying to put three feet in front of the others." But there are always a few rotten arthropods in the barrel, and keeping them in line is Joey Fly, a detective with a fedora, a sense of justice masquerading as cynicism, a flair for similes and really, really big eyes. Joey, clearly an adult, is given a sidekick, an impetuous but eager scorpion named Sammy Stingtail. The crime does get solved-it involves a stolen diamond pencil box-but like the best noirs, the particulars take a backseat to the irresistible interplay of moody visuals (Numberman wryly replicates the chiaroscuro mis-en-scène of Depression-era cinema) and hard-boiled patois ("The facts were starting to line up like centipedes at a shoe sale"). Ages 8-up. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Children's Literature -
Life in Bug City isn't easy, especially if your name is Fly—Joey Fly, Private Eye. When a smart mouthed kid scorpion named Sammy Stingtail shows up demanding to be hired as Joey's assistant, it turns out to be just the start of a real tough day for Joey. Sammy is one of the clumsiest scorpions around. He demolishes most of Joey's office while trying to clean it; as a result, it doesn't look very professional when a beautiful butterfly named Delilah shows up in need of a private eye to find her diamond pencil box. Still, Joey gets the case. He spends the day combing the crime scene, dealing with a shrewish mosquito suspect, and trying to keep Sammy from accidentally destroying of all the evidence. As the day toils on, bug suspects mount, Sammy gets on Joey's nerves, and Delilah ends up firing Joey! Can Joey still solve the case and show that a good private eye always gets his bug? Reynolds and Numberman craft a fun graphic novel that's equal parts Humphrey Bogart and A Bug's Life. Joey's first-person narration is full of funny film noir cliches (e.g., "Crime sticks to this city like a one-winged fly on a fifty-cent swatter." "The air was more tense than an alley cat at a flea market."). This humor will keep kids—and parents—laughing. Overall, this is a funny new addition to the growing list of animal detective books. Reviewer: Michael JungSchool Library Journal
Gr 4-6
Hardboiled insect detective Joey Fly and his assistant, a young scorpion named Sammy Stingtail, search for a missing diamond pencil box belonging to Delilah, a femme fatale swallowtail butterfly. Simple, whimsical drawings and humorous dialogue give the book child appeal. The illustrations' gray and sepia tones reference film noir, but this may be lost on younger readers, many of whom probably prefer more color in their comics. The clever writing doesn't keep the story from lagging at times: the case of a missing pencil box, in the end, can't sustain the most gripping narrative. Unique and witty, but not essential.-Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn Public Library, NY