Elvis and Olive: Super Detectives

Natalie and Annie decide to put their detective skills to use as they open the E & O Detective Agency to solve neighborhood mysteries. Together they stumble across an incredibly intriguing one when Mrs. Warsaw, their elderly neighbor with memory problems, begins spreading news about a woman named Zina Zeolite hiding in her bedroom closet. Mrs. Warsaw often speaks of seeing strange things so Natalie doesn't believe her. But Annie insists that they take the case.

As the detectives start investigating, Natalie and Annie discover that Zina Zeolite is the name of the world's first female comic book superhero. But could Zina Zeolite also be a real person? And what does a superhero have to do with the ailing Mrs. Warsaw?

The girls must band together to help Natalie win her school election, solve this mystery, and stay friends.

Praise for ELVIS & OLIVE:

"Watson's debut is a solid exploration of friendship and self-confidence themes that are so important to middle-grade girls." -- BOOKLIST

"Watson has penned a satisfying friendship story with drama and humor in fine balance." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS

Children's Literature

As a nominee for Student Council Secretary, Natalie (a.k.a. Olive) has to complete some sort of "Helping Hands" service project. While brainstorming with her friend Annie (a.k.a. Elvis), they come up with picking up trash, running a soup can drive, and opening a detective agency. A detective agency? It seems an unusual choice, and it is, but that's what the girls decide to do. They will solve mysteries for their neighbors who are in need of help. And so the E & O Detective Agency begins! The girls succeed at finding missing flip-flops and providing other such services, but they struggle with decoding the mystery of kindly Mrs. Warsaw's addled memories and finding Annie's missing mother. Their friendship is strained by the weight of Annie's wishful thinking and Natalie's school campaign; will this be the end of the E & O Detective Agency—and the girls' friendship? Will they be able to solve the biggest, most challenging, heart-wrenching cases of their career? Stephanie Watson has a knack for creating realistic and engaging if eccentric characters. Her Elvis and Olive are well-intentioned, realistic girls, and as they turn the book's final page, readers will be looking forward to the girls' next adventure. The only drawback of this book is its cover art; the depicted girls look at least a few years older than nine and ten years old, and they apear to be "spying" (for which they got in trouble in the first "Elvis and Olive book") more than "detecting." Reviewer: Heidi Hauser Green

From the Author: I was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When I was a kid, my favorite thing was performing in plays at the Children's Theatre Company in town. The dancing and music, costumes and lights brought my favorite stories — Pippi Longstocking, Alice in Wonderland, the Velveteen Rabbit — to life in a way that felt like some sort of magic trick. It was like stepping into the pages of the books I had read at bedtime and meeting all the funny characters. I think that in part, it was this daily contact with storytelling that made me want to eventually create my own stories.

I attended public school in Minneapolis through high school, then enrolled in Sarah Lawrence College in New York to study theater, dance and writing. I enjoyed the short stories and novels I read in my writing classes, but between assignments I would go back to the books I loved best as a kid: Harriet the Spy, Mary Poppins, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, the Ramona Quimby series. By the time I graduated from college, I knew I wanted to write for children in the spirit of these special books.

I started writing Elvis & Olive with a desire to tell a good story, but no idea if I could do it, and no clue what it would be about. So I kept the writing a secret from everyone. And soon, the whole story was about secrets.