SOLVED. Y/A or Middle-grade fiction series about a school where two new students are admitted and solve mysteries — one of their adventures involved a flock of pigeons invading the school. [s]

[Kelsey]

Hiya,
I would love to have help finding a book series I read probably between 2008-2012. It was published around that time, and set in the present. There were about 4 or so books in the series at the time, though there may be more now. I borrowed them as physical books from my library. They're the kind of books you would find at a scholastic book fair.

The story was about these two pre-teens / young teens starting at a new school, coincidentally on the same day. One was a blonde girl, possibly named Sophie or something similar, and one was a brunette boy whose name I can't recall. I also wildly remember that their noses were descried as ski-slope for the girl, and snub for the boy.

They were put in the same class, and initially didn't get along well, but eventually become friends. I think it was first-person or limited third-person narration, and the chapters would switch POV between the two characters. They befriended others who also attended the school, such as a girl named Memphis, who wore her hair shaved and had bright green eyes. There was a bully character who would try and make fun of her for her hair, but Memphis wouldn't take anything from anyone.

The plot was in a similar vein to books like the 'Schooling Around' series, or the tv show 'Detentionaire', where something strange happens, and it would be up to the main characters and their odd-squad friends to solve the mystery.

The book that I best remember revolved around the mystery of pigeons. The school was overrun by birds who were disrupting classes and making messes. I don't remember how it got resolved.

The covers of this series usually featured cartoon versions of the two main characters wearing school uniforms, with a block-colour background. The title would be written inside something like a speech bubble. I'm fairly sure that the pigeon book was purple, and had a pigeon on the cover too. Another cover in the series may have been green.

I'm sure the titles were single-words, generally onomatopoeic or words of disgust like 'ick'. I thought that the pigeon book was called 'Splat!' but I haven't been able to find anything like the book I read with that title.

The books were in English, and I think the author was a man, but I'm not sure. I have a feeling it may have been set in Australia/New Zealand/UK, purely because the students are wearing uniforms, but it could also be set in the USA or Canada.

I'd really appreciate if you could submit your ideas for what these book series could be :)

[Minor Spoiler]
I also remember that the last book in this series that I read, which may or may not be the pigeon one, had an underlying plot about how both of the main characters were about to transfer again to different schools, and they were upset about it and didn't want to tell each other. I think this may be because of romantic tension between the characters, or maybe they were just really good friends. I can't remember how this resolved; either they both coincidentally were able to stay after all, or they left and that was the end of the series, or it was all going to be resolved in another book.

[Rainbowheart]

Legacies?

[Kelsey]

Rainbowheart wrote: "Legacies?"

Thanks for the suggestion :)

I don't think this is it though. The school was not magical, and it also wasn't a boarding school.

[Becca]

This is a long shot because the covers don't match your description and I'm sure you'd remember if they were set in a youth orchestra rather than a regular school, but just in case - the Sizzle and Splat Sleuths series by Ronald Kidd? The second book, Second Fiddle, has a pigeon on the cover.

[Kris]

Kelsey, please add more plot details (e.g., pigeon mystery) to the topic header (title). We have thousands of book requests.

Click the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website or app. (On the Mobile website, there's a "Desktop version" link at the bottom of the page.)

[Kelsey]

Becca wrote: "This is a long shot because the covers don't match your description and I'm sure you'd remember if they were set in a youth orchestra rather than a regular school, but just in case - the Sizzle and..."


Thanks for the suggestion!
But I don't think it's the same series :(

[Kelsey]

bump

[Kris]

This isn't your book (too recent), but how does the cover compare to your book? Are the girl and boy illustrations more cartoonish?
- (Chirp by Kate Messner)

[Kelsey]

Kris wrote: "This isn't your book (too recent), but how does the cover compare to your book? Are the girl and boy illustrations more cartoonish?
- (Chirp by [author:Ka..."

Thanks for adding this, it does look and sound very similar to how I described :)
The characters did look more cartoonish, with more facial detail

[Kelsey]

Bump

[Kelsey]

Bump

[Kelsey]

Bump

[Becca]

This one keeps me up at night... you remember so many specific details, it shouldn't be this hard to find! Just to say that I am continuing to hunt for this, but haven't had any luck so far.

[Kris]

Is the genre mystery (for middle grade/YA)?

[Becca]

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE! I think I may have found them - the Freekham High School series by Steve Cole. The first book is Thumb, also published as The Day of the Flying Thumbs. The pigeon one is Pigeon, also published as The Day of the Monster Pigeons.

I don't know why I couldn't find them in my searches on Goodreads, LibraryThing, Google Books or WorldCat - I finally found them by searching the metadata field on Archive.org for "pigeon" + "school", in case anyone is interested!

[Kris]

Here are more plot descriptions of Becca's suggestions from Amazon. (I used the spoiler tag to save space on the page.)

The Day of the Flying Thumbs / Thumb by Steve Cole -- (view spoiler)["It's the first day at a new school for both Sam and Sara. So of course they're hoping to fit in quickly. All they want is a helping hand. Some new friends to keep an eye out for them and help them get ahead. What they're probably not hoping for is a THUMB.

Actually, a lot of thumbs. And fingers. They're turning up all over Freekham High - in seriously unexpected places. But WHY?
Can Sam solve the mystery of the bothersome body parts? Can Sara keep her cool in the face of the dastardly digits? And most important, can they get through the day without being labelled as losers by their new classmates?" (hide spoiler)]

The Day of the Monster Pigeons / Pigeon by Steve Cole -- (view spoiler)["Sara, Sam and friends are putting on a play-what could be more harmless than that? It's going to be a nice, restful, fun day to round off the summer term. But this is Freekham High and something unexpected always happens...This time, it's a plague of PIGEONS!

It's almost as if the birds are deliberately targeting the school, flying into windows and making a mess everywhere... Soon some of the teachers start to get in a FLAP. Then the costumes for the play start to go missing and Fido threatens to FLY off the handle. Everything's going wrong-can they somehow WING it-or will everything end in disaster?" (hide spoiler)]

[Kelsey]

Becca wrote: "HOLD THE FRONT PAGE! I think I may have found them - the Freekham High School series by Steve Cole. The first book is Thumb, also published as [book:The Day of the Flying Thumbs|1481..."

Thank you so much, my year has been made! These are the books. Thanks for looking so hard!! I thought I'd never find out what they were called (would never have guessed the titles and covers had changed since I read them - what a mystery)

[Kelsey]

Kris wrote: "Here are more plot descriptions of Becca's suggestions from Amazon. (I used the spoiler tag to save space on the page.)

The Day of the Flying Thumbs / Thumb by [auth..."

Thank you for your help in sleuthing these books out!!

[Becca]

Kelsey wrote: "Thank you so much, my year has been made! These are the books. Thanks for looking so hard!! I thought I'd never find out what they were called (would never have guessed the titles and covers had changed since I read them - what a mystery)"

Glad I could help. This one was really annoying me so my efforts weren't entirely selfless!