The Horn Book Guide

YOUNGER FICTION

Fleischman, Paul

The Dunderheads

56 pp. | Candlewick | June, 2009 | Trade ISBN 978-0-7636-2498-9 $16.99

(2) 1-3 Illustrated by David Roberts. Miss Breakbone is a piratical confiscator of treasures brought to class. Led by self-possessed narrator "Einstein," her students set out to retrieve Miss Breakbone's latest plunder--a one-eared cat statue. Roberts caricatures the formidable teacher and the amiably wide-eyed kids with a witty, agile pen and judicious splashes of color, an excellent foil for Fleischman's terse and comical, action-packed private-eye send-up.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2009