Murilla Gorilla: Jungle Detective

Murilla Gorilla joins a proud tradition of sleuths whose cases are solved as much by dumb luck as by skill. Over five chapters, Murilla tries to figure out who ate the banana muffins that Ms. Chimpanzee had been planning to sell at the Mango Market. Readers will quickly get the sense that Murilla isn’t a conventional detective. In the first chapter, she goes back to sleep after getting Ms. Chimpanzee’s phone call, and it takes her some time to track down her backpack and badge (“It was in the bathtub!”). Lloyd (Ella’s Umbrellas) works lots of deadpan humor into her trim sentences. “Do you like bananas?” Murilla asks Ms. Chimpanzee, getting an idea. “Murilla! I am not the muffin thief!” shouts the increasingly frustrated baker. While this is a charming debut for Murilla, it’s also a strong one for Lee—her sherbet palette and friendly characterizations are an ideal fit for the book’s blend of mystery and comedy. When Murilla dons a banana tree costume and tries to stay awake long enough to catch the perpetrator, she’s nothing short of a vision. Ages 5–8. (May)