Maxie's Mystery Files: The Stalled Mall and Other Crazy Cases

Maxie is a feisty young Sherlock; her appreciative, admiring little brother Alfie is her Watson. With ""Mighty Mental Magic,'' she solves crimes framed in contemporary suburban settings. There's a shopping mall where people and cars get stuck in their tracks by a man with glue (he's tired of all the traffic around the mall, wrecking his view); and a computer glitch causes Maxie's neighbor distress when 500 unordered, live chickens are delivered to his house. These are fast-moving, nonviolent mysteries, but there aren't really any criminals or evil-doers, just people who make mistakes or have some minor axes to grind. Maxie, resourceful and clear-headed, looks chipper and able in Vasconcellos's cartoony illustrations. Ages 810. (May)