Rylant's newest series for beginning readers, The High-Rise Private Eyes, features two friends, Bunny (a rabbit) and Jack (a raccoon), who employ their professional sleuthing skills in an urban setting populated by dressed animals. In Climbing Cat, Bunny's neighbor needs help finding her stolen binoculars. Kids will enjoy Bunny and Jack's banter and bickering as much as the mild mysteries. Karas' droll illustrations reflect the innocence and sly humor of the texts.

Poppleton discovers that going to the movies with Cherry Sue is more fun than going alone; makes a quilt with his friends, sharing stories that they stitch into the pattern; and gets distracted from borrowing "bath stuff" when what Cherry Sue has to lend makes him hungry. Both Rylant's likable characters and Teague's warm watercolors will please Poppleton fans.

This versatile Newbery Medalist has crafted another winning series for young readers, this one for kids who are ready for books that are a little longer than the stories in her perennially popular Henry and Mudge series. The High-Rise Private Eyes are two big-city sophisticates, Bunny Brown, a stylish and brilliant female rabbit, and Jack Jones, a rather timid but inquisitive raccoon. The two are best friends who live in separate apartments in the same high-rise building, and together they specialize in solving minor crimes in their neighborhood. In this book, the second in the series, Bunny and Jack track down a bird-watching cat who has made off with monogrammed binoculars belonging to their neighbor Miss Nancy, a delightful goose who gives piano lessons on her grand piano and grows yellow roses on her balcony. The winsome animal creatures are brought to life with Karas's ( The Seals on the Bus , p. 633, etc.) pastel illustrations done in acrylic, gouache, and pencil, in a style similar to that of Marc Brown. Teachers will like the format of this series, with clever integration of different types of writing: the words of the title on an index card, the contents page on a legal pad, lists of clues, and a letter from the detective duo on the inside back cover flap. Bunny and Jack solve their first case in The High-Rise Private Eyes: The Case of the Missing Monkey (not reviewed), with more cases in the works. The series will help fill the demand for easy mysteries that are accessible to young readers in the early grades and funny, too. (Easy reader. 6-8)

Gr 1-3-This new easy-reader series features detectives and best friends Bunny Brown and raccoon Jack Jones. In Monkey, someone has taken a glass monkey figurine from the cash-register counter at the diner where Bunny and Jack eat breakfast. After observing the morning regulars, the clever rabbit comes up with reasons to eliminate most suspects and narrows down the accused to only one, allowing readers to follow her reasoning step by step. In Cat, Bunny is trying to get an acrophobic Jack up to her 21st-floor balcony when they are interrupted by Miss Nancy's scream of "Thief!" Again readers witness the sleuth's deductive reasoning as she quickly comes to the appropriate conclusion. Each case is presented in four chapters that set the scene, describe the circumstances, and offer suspects or clues and a solution. The full-color illustrations, rendered in acrylic, gouache, and pencil, capture the cartoonlike animals' animated expressions and poses, particularly of the two detectives as they engage in their frequent friendly banter. Children will enjoy searching the pages for the reported clues and will surely look forward to future installments.-Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.