Arthur is good at customer service and not much else, but he loves the mystery books that he reads with his free-spirited, motorcycle-riding grandmother and longs to be adventurous like her. When one day a mysterious teacup and the ghost of his little sister's deceased mouse appear, Arthur is thrilled to have a mystery to solve. The book does its best to show characters as fully human and complex by having Arthur learn that people are more than just the one thing he sees them as, like the employee at his family's store who experienced homelessness and jail time, making Arthur rethink his previous feelings on unhoused individuals. The conversations on race are not quite as successful, though Arthur's best friend, Veda (a Mexican American girl), does provide good pushback in certain scenes. A subplot touching on Arthur's relationship with his male friends brings up the topics of teasing, gender roles, and masculinity, though it may have benefited from a deeper exploration. Still, a fast, fun read with a great setting, recommended for young mystery readers.

Arthur Popper is a diffident, slightly anxious eleven-year-old who lives with his parents and younger sister above the family business, a thriving, capacious secondhand store in Boulder, Colorado. He works shifts in the store and is valued for being "good at customer service" but longs for another area where he can truly shine. When some family members' and friends' jewelry starts disappearing, he takes on the mystery-solving challenge. He receives advice from a ghost mouse who lives in a teacup on his bookshelf, the single touch of fantasy in an otherwise naturalistic novel. The detective narrative, which is tidily composed and plausible, provides the scaffolding for a story of family and community relationships that is a tour de force of small, beautifully calibrated effects. Arthur's best friend is Veda, who is Latinx, but things go sideways for them when Arthur's grandfather expresses a prejudice against "certain kinds of people." Freeman doesn't provide easy answers to the problem of a bigoted family member, nor does she give Grandpa an easy epiphany. Instead she portrays a realistic, flawed family with all its tensions. She allows Arthur to encounter and grapple with the concept of white privilege on his own, in age-appropriate terms, keeping the focus firmly on the child characters and their strengths. Sarah Ellis

Readers have more than a ghost of a chance of solving this mystery.Arthur has...problems. The first one starts when his younger sister, Ramona, announces that her mouse has died. After a glittery funeral in the backyard-Ramona was in charge of decorating the coffin-Arthur's life seems to get back to normal. Until that evening, when he realizes that he's being haunted by the mouse's ghost. Thankfully, the rodent afterlife allows for better communicative skills, and Arthur and newly christened ghost Watson (after Sherlock's sidekick) can easily converse. Watson's timing is impeccable, as a mystery is afoot: A special teacup from the past appears in Universal Trash, the consignment shop that Arthur's family runs, and soon other things-like important paperwork and jewelry-go missing. Freeman plays more than fair with the clues, interspersed among a few red herrings, allowing savvy readers to solve the mystery ahead of Arthur and Watson. Impressively, Freeman also interweaves a subplot concerning prejudice that feels as real as the characters who work and shop at Universal Trash. As the story progresses, Watson's presence may feel out of place in the otherwise normal world, but that quibble aside, the story will be a welcome addition to any mystery lover's bookshelf. Hints of a sequel (and more ghosts) will leave readers excited for more. Arthur's family is coded White.A delightful mystery that will lure in young sleuths. (Mystery. 8-12)

Eleven-year-old Arthur Popper likes his comfortable, familiar life living above his family’s thrift store, Universal Trash, in Boulder, Colo. But his quotidian existence is derailed when a funeral for the pet mouse of younger sister Ramona brings about an accidental rodent haunting. Supernatural conundrums deepen when a chipped teacup with a puzzling past,

Gr 3–7— Eleven-year-old Arthur, is named after King Arthur, lives in Colorado, and helps his family by working at their junk store, Universal Trash. He is not seen as brave and sometimes gets made fun of at school. One day he stumbles upon a broken teacup that was stolen in the past but could help him solve a crime. Arthur has help from a group made up of his sister, best friend, the ghost of his sister's pet mouse, and a police officer. Can Arthur become brave and solve the mystery with his group of companions? Kids will enjoy reading about Arthur because he is a very relatable character and visibly grows through the novel. The relationship Arthur has with his younger sister seems very real—they bicker like siblings but play together as well. The book could also be a source of a classroom or family discussion: Arthur's grandfather is portrayed as racist and classist when he looks down on Juan, Veda's mother's boyfriend, applies to work at Universal Trash. Some readers may recognize their own family members in this exchange, prompting useful conversation around pushing back against outdated viewpoints. VERDICT A fun mystery adventure with small openings for important conversations about racism and more.— Maeve Dodds