Detective Stanley and the Mystery at the Museum (Detective Stanley #1)

This boldly illustrated graphic novel series kickoff by Tunnicliffe (A French Wedding, for adults) and Harrison (The Honey Bear Hive) stars a pancake-loving, Sherlock-style black and white dog with floppy ears and piercing eyes as the eponymous sleuth. While eating breakfast on what should have been his first day of retirement (“The only puzzles he’d be solving would be jigsaws”), Stanley receives an urgent plea to dust off his deerstalker cap: someone has left the local art museum in disarray, yet nothing appears to be missing, not even Composition Deux, a prized abstract painting by Bleat Mondrian (a playful nod to Piet Mondrian, the subject of the book’s afterword). Despite a brief setback—jealous rhino Superintendent Shiro imprisons him for alleged watch theft—Stanley’s keen nose and oil painting knowledge lead him to uncovering the crime and its culprit. Clear line drawings and single-plane compositions propel the meaty, joke-punctuated plot at a brisk pace and echo the crisp geometry and vibrant colors of Mondrian’s work. Ages 6–9. (Feb.)