Lou Lou Bombay and her best friend, Peacock Pearl, are back for their second mystery-solving adventure, this time involving their city's bicentennial celebration. It's set to occur in their neighborhood, El Corazón, but when the mayor is called away for an emergency, Vice Mayor Andy Argyle announces that the celebration belongs in Verde Valley. He produces a diary that supposedly belonged to the city's founder to back up his claim. Lou Lou and Pea smell a rat and set out to prove the diary is fake and bring the celebration back to El Corazón. The third-person narrator effectively relates the story, highlighting how these two friends share and share alike. Pea's Mexican American heritage is folded into the text, fairly presenting traditional Hispanic culture, although some readers may need help translating the longer Spanish sentences. Throughout, each girl also shares sayings pertaining to her passion: Lou Lou, about gardening; Pea, about fashion. Fans of Lou Lou and Pea and the Mural Mystery (2016) will welcome this second adventure, but readers new to the series will not be at a disadvantage.

Lou Lou and Pea stop the villainous vice-mayor from sabotaging the city's Bicentennial Bonanza. A strong sense of a bicultural community is created through Latinx cultural markers and Spanish words and phrases. This standalone sequel to Lou Lou & Pea and the Mural Mystery has a lively yet simple illustrated plot perfect for graduates of chapter books such as Ivy + Bean. Glos.

Lou Lou and Pea are back for a second adventure following series opener Lou Lou & Pea and the Mural Mystery (2016).Fifth-grade best friends, the white, budding horticulturist Lou Lou (short for Louise) and Latina fashionista Pea (short for Peacock) are thrilled to be helping their neighborhood, El Corazón, host the citywide Bicentennial Bonanza. When the mayor must leave town for a family emergency and the vice mayor takes the reins of the event planning, things go awry. Vice Mayor Argyle, who is a villain straight from vaudeville melodrama with his garish clothing and slick goatee, claims to have discovered the long-lost diary of the city's founder, and its contents claim that rival neighborhood Verde Valley is the rightful host of the town anniversary fiesta. Lou Lou and Pea set out to prove the diary is a fake and reclaim their neighborhood's hosting role. The ending is a foregone conclusion, though it takes several chapters longer than necessary to arrive at the destination. Despite the verbosity, silly alliterative names and the fanciful premise seem written for a younger audience than the reading level would suggest. Apart from half-Mexican Pea, Latinx characters appear in several supporting roles, and Spanish vocabulary and location names are sprinkled throughout the text. However, starting with the clunky "Verde Valley" and extending to awkward use of Spanish in dialogue, the feeling is one of a predominantly white culture that has co-opted Latinx culture and language as its own. Kitschy and tedious. (Mystery. 8-12)