Detective Valentine

by Audrey Wood

The great Detective Valentine has his work cut out for him when the snow queen's crown is stolen two days before the contest and the mayor's wife, a famous actress, and the detective's good friend are all suspects.

Genres: Mystery, Picture Books, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Audrey Wood studied art and drama at the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has owned an operated a book and import store, taught chldren's drama and art, and traveled throughout Mexico and Guatemala studying Indian folk art. She now lives in Hawaii with her talented family (husband Don and son Bruce, who have both collaborated with Audrey by illustrating some of her books).

Reviews

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haha I loved the irony! The focus of the narrative was finding the missing crown, the focus of the detective was finding his missing hat, and through the competing motivations, we learned about various character personalities in concise moments of action. I also liked the irony of the one person winning the crown in the end being the one that winded her own business and was kind.

[Gwendolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detective Valentine is about an animal detective (he kind of looks like a porcupine) who has to figure out who stole the snow queen's crown and his own hat. This story has many literature elements that are stereotypical to the mystery genre. The story starts late on a cold, dark, stormy night. The detective hears an eerie scream at midnight, and in the morning his hat and the snow queen's crown are both missing. He identifies 3 suspects and interviews them to see if they act suspicious. Two characters confess to committing the crime, another suspect is later found to be guilty, there is a secret wall safe behind a mirror, and a high speed chase occurs. In addition, the character that seems the least likely to be the culprit is the one who committed the crime, which is something that occurs in mystery books a lot. All of these elements are what make this story a mystery book. The illustrations go back and forth between being black and white and being super crazy 1980's colorful. The black and white images really add to that mysterious mood that the book is trying to convey, while the colorful ones are just super exciting. My favorite illustration is on pages 30-31; the female characters are wearing outfits that truly seem to encompass the over-the-top fashion that the 1980's is known for. Overall, I thought that this was a nice story to introduce young children to the concepts of mysteries and would encourage them to keep reading mysteries as they get older.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun mystery for children - the story is engaging, somewhat reminiscent of a "Nate the Great" story, with his single-minded focus on his objective. The illustrations alternate between black and white pictures and color pictures and the anthropomorphic animal characters are fun. It's a fairly quick book to read aloud and we enjoyed reading it together.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the town of Bigalow that was high on a hill, two days before the Snow Queen contest, there lurked a hat thief, who also stole the snow queen's crown. It was up to Detective Valentine to solve the mystery, and return the crown. Detective braves the elements, and the Old North Wind, and clears up the mystery with time to spare.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful and funny, with great art and lots of detail for little ones to enjoy.