The Gold Medal Mess

Kelly branches out from his Ballpark Mysteries books with this opening title in the MVP series, in which a multiethnic group of elementary school students try to figure out who is threatening their school’s Olympics-style sports competition. After best friends Max and Alice discover a note reading “Your Olympics are a joke. Cancel them or the joke will be on you!” they enlist the help of their friend Nico, as well as twins Luke and Kat, to find the culprit, using methods both traditional (comparing fingerprints) and contemporary (evidence in a smartphone photo). Lively dialogue, athletic action, and smart thinking among the kids should keep interest levels high, and Brundage’s black-and-white cartoons mix playfulness and suspense as they depict various acts of sabotage, such as an oil-soaked relay race course. Simultaneously available: The Soccer Surprise. Ages 6–9. [em]Author’s agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (May) [/em]