Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Doyle and Fossey, Science Detectives
In this clever chapter book, the second in a new series, real science is seamlessly woven into four separate mysteries solved by Science Detectives Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey. No case is too big or too small for this dynamic duo, who never miss an opportunity to unravel evil plots surrounding the election for class president or expose the frauds behind the monster mysteriously rising from the depths of the local lake.
The snappy, funny dialogue and wacky scenarios are perfect for middle-graders, who will enjoy discovering the four science experiments at the back of the book, which focus on such concepts as static electricity, oil spills, ultraviolet light, and buoyancy. Each experiment corresponds to a case that Doyle and Fossey have solved-and will have readers scrambling for their own magnifying glasses and fluorescent thief-detection powder in no time!
Grades 3-6--Move over, Encyclopedia Brown-Doyle and Fossey have arrived. Drake Doyle is the scientist while Nell Fossey is the one with the detective skills. This amusing duo solves four cases quickly and efficiently by scientific deduction. Each story is complete in two chapters. Humor abounds, most of it tongue-in-cheek, which most kids love. While the two protagonists are multidimensional, many of the secondary characters are stereotypical, sometimes on purpose, such as the Beauty Princess Extraordinaire. The black-and-white halftones and line drawings have the right touch of zaniness. As an added bonus, there are instructions for the experiments that were used to solve the mysteries.
Michele Torrey first became a published author at age ten, when her story about a dinosaur egg popping out of the kitchen sink appeared in the Seaview Heights Elementary newspaper. Her fifth grade class, located in Edmonds, Washington, wrote, edited, and published the newspaper.
While Torrey has lived most of her life in Washington, she has traveled throughout the world. As a child, she lived overseas in England and France, and spent most of her junior high and high school years in Heidelberg, Germany. At the age of four, she lived in Cockfield, England, where she first attended grammar school. She remembers the handbell calling the children in from recess, the morning's recitation of the Lord's Prayer, hot custard for lunch, and the bratty girl Rosemary who stuck out her tongue at Michele and got a spanking for it. When Torrey temporarily moved back to the United States and her classmates asked how English people spoke, she promptly responded in all seriousness and with a thick country accent, "Cheerio, ol' chap!" All in all, Torrey spent ten years of her childhood overseas. She returned to the Seattle area in her senior year, after which she completed a degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of Washington.
For the past sixteen years, Torrey has explored the depths of her imagination while writing novels for adults, young adults, and middle-grade. Her books include the CHRONICLES OF COURAGE seafaring series for middle-grade (Knopf), and the DOYLE AND FOSSEY: SCIENCE DETECTIVES chapter book series (Sterling). She is a two-time Thurber House Residency in Children's Literature nominee, plus a two-time winner of PNWA's Zola Award. Among other honors, her books have been chosen by the Junior Library Guild, named by VOYA as "Top Shelf Fiction for Middle-Grade Readers", and nominated for the Sakura Medal. Most recently, her book VOYAGE OF PLUNDER was a WA State Book Award finalist. Torrey is a regular presenter at writers' conferences and schools. She lives in South Bend, Washington, with her husband. They have three grown sons, two granddaughters, and a calico cat.
In addition to her writing and traveling, Torrey is a director and co-founder of Orphans Africa, a 501 c 3 nonprofit charity (www.orphansafrica.org). Orphans Africa works primarily in Tanzania, building boarding schools for children orphaned by AIDS.
