Starred Review ALA Booklist (Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Starred Review Ready to get your mind blown? Then dig into this enthralling d oddly shaped ok. It's a mystery, see: gumshoe Roy Dodge and his "confidential assistant" Gus (presumably a kid, though neither of them are pictured) have been called to the top floor of an apartment building, where the owner has been robbed of a priceless clock. Well, not the clock, exactly, but the 12 emerald-studded numbers. Every other floor was robbed, too, as the thief made his (or her? or their?) way upward. So Roy and Gus interview each successive owner, from the mad scientist to the hoarder to the time traveler. The right-hand side of each spread offers a maddeningly detailed three-quarter overhead slice of each floor. Twintig (a pseudonym for Scott Teplin, Mac Barnett, and Eli Horowitz) has an absurd, dry wit ("You should have seen my emotive facial expressions!" insists the mime). And those names! General Klobberduck. Jigsy Squonk. Sigfried Plumpjack. Rarely has a game of Clue been this fun. Oh, and those 12 bejeweled numbers? They're real and buried in 12 holes across the country. This is not a joke. The codes to unlock their locations are hidden within each drawing. So grab a shovel because the real mystery is just beginning.

Kirkus Reviews

Hours of fun for sharp-eyed puzzle fans. Painted on oversized cardboard pages trimmed to a peaked top, the arrangements and finely detailed contents of 13 apartments seen in canted cutaway views (purportedly) contain hidden leads to real concealed treasure. In the rudimentary plot, detective Roy Dodge and his bumbling "Watson," Augustus Twintig, are hired by wealthy collector Bevel Ternky to investigate the disappearance of an antique clock's 12 emerald-studded numbers. The detectives pay brief calls on each of the apartment house's residents—who sport monikers like P.K. Quello or Jigsy Squonk and live in wildly differing digs—before gathering everyone for the obligatory denouement. Rex adds spot-art caricature portraits of all but Twintig, and jewelry designer Anna Sheffield created the physical numbers themselves, which are buried in "holes strewn across the country." For those who can't bestir themselves to join the nationwide hunt, bulletins will be posted on an associated website. Good luck. (Novelty. 10-15, adult)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Part The Westing Game, part Masquerade, this board book mystery lures readers in with its pentagonal shape, dry humor, and pages of intricate details. But the chief draw is the promise of%C2%97very real%C2%97buried treasure, with the clues to its locations hidden within the book. Narrator Gus Twintig plays an imbecilic Watson to the Holmes that is detective Roy Dodge. They are summoned to a 13-story apartment building to investigate a string of robberies: the emerald-encrusted numbers have been stolen from a clock belonging to owner Bevel Ternky, and his 12 tenants have also been burgled. Dodge and Twintig make their way down the building, interviewing bizarre residents in equally eccentric apartments (Sigfried Plumpjack%C2%92s dwelling is a maze of hamster trails for him and his piano-playing hamster). The right side of each spread is an overhead cutaway view of each apartment, ostensibly drawn by Twintig. Given the potential of discovering clues to where the actual bejeweled numbers (created by jewelry designer Anna Sheffield) have been hidden, kids should be plenty motivated to pore over each scene. Ages 9%C2%96up. (May)