What Really Happened to Humpty? (Nursery-Rhyme Mysteries) - Softcover

Ransom, Jeanie Franz

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1580893910 ISBN 13: 9781580893916

Publisher: Charlesbridge, 2010

Synopsis

A Mother Goose mystery that will have readers wondering ‘Who done it?”. In this fast-paced, nursery-rhyme caper, hardboiled detective, Joe Dumpty does his darnedest to crack the case. It all started when Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Then, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Or—as his brother Detective Joe Dumpty thinks—was he pushed?  Suspects are aplenty (as are the puns) in this scrambled noir. Detective Dumpty works his way through the list of suspects, that hail from the pages of Mother Goose, in order to get to the bottom of what really happened to his brother.

This fractured fairy-tale mystery is full of whimsy and wordplay that will delight readers of all ages.

About this title

About the Author:

Jeanie Franz Ransom is the author of several books, including WHAT PARENTS DO WHEN YOU'RE NOT HOME and GRANDMA U. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Hard-boiled detective Joe Dumpty’s ovoid body is encased in a ’40s-era belted brown trench coat topped with a fedora, and his clipped statements will remind older readers of TV’s Joe Friday. Here, cleft-chinned Joe recounts how he cracked one of the toughest mysteries in Mother Gooseland: the assault with intent to spill the yolky interior of his older brother, Humpty. Joe tells how he examined the crime scene before the ambulance arrived (pulled by all the king’s horses and filled with all the king’s men). He recovers some evidence from under Miss Muffet’s tuffet, interviews the shell-shocked Humpty in the hospital, and follows the trail of evidence to one very huffy Big Bad Wolf, dressed to kill in gangster pinstripes. This enchanting send-up of old-time detective stories will have older readers in stitches, while younger readers will get caught up in the clever recombination of fairy-tale characters. The illustrations, done in watercolor and pen and ink, are as filled with puns and crowded with humorous detail as the story—even the typeface looks like it was pounded out by an old Remington typewriter. This CSI: Mother Goose is a winner. Grades 1-4. --Connie Fletcher

About this edition

• Publisher: Charlesbridge
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1580893910
• ISBN 13: 9781580893916
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Axelsen Stephen