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 Missing Monkey , the owner of a local diner, The Grill Next Door, asks the detective duo to recover a little glass monkey that has disappeared from his lunch counter. 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.

"In a high-rise building deep in the heart of a big city live two private eyes: Bunny Brown and Jack Jones. Bunny is the brains, Jack is the snoop, and together they crack cases wide open." Rylant introduces beginning readers to a genre that continues to entertain long after the act of reading loses its mystery. Karas's illustrations reflect the action, plant the clues, and keep the mood closer to blanc than to noir.

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.