Customer Reviews

Grooves: A Kind of Mystery

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Dwayne Ruggles's adventure begins when his favorite teacher, Mr. Fred, teaches his physical science class about how record players amplify sound. The kids use a construction paper megaphone/loudspeaker and a straight pin to pick up the music on an old-fashioned vinyl record.

Soon after science class, rich businessman Howard Thigpen gives a talk about wealth during school assembly. As Thigpen demonstrates that people will do anything if offered enough money, Dwayne notices that the factory owner has sparkles in place of a shadow.

When Dwayne arrives home, he decides to try the loudspeaker experiment again. He wonders if his corrugated wallpaper might have music inside, since it has grooves like a record. However, tracing the wallpaper with the needle only makes a scratchy sound. He tries several other objects without luck. But when he runs the needle over his blue jeans, he hears a call for help. The message is incomplete, until he and his friend Kevin get their hands on an antique Victrola record player horn. Then they can hear the entire message: "Please. You must help us. He's stealing the light from our eyes."

Now they truly have a mystery on their hands. Who needs help? Who is the eye light thief?

Dwayne idly runs the needle across a ridged potato chip and hears another message. The boys get their first big clue when they realize that both the blue jeans and the potato chips are Thigpen brand.

Dwayne and Kevin are off to solve their groovy mystery. Along the way they accumulate another detective, start a pig stampede, star on "wanted" posters, and much more.

The GROOVES characters are funny, including one recycler who wears mottled gray-pink shirts, which he weaves from dryer lint. The mystery is far-fetched but not nearly as wacky as it seems it might be. (In a very weird way it all makes sense.) This book is just plain enjoyable, from start to finish, and will appeal to both mystery and fantasy fans --- or to anyone who enjoys an imaginative, original story.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com

Easy and fun read for a 10 year old. My son enjoyed it much like he enjoys the Wimpy Kid series.

The book had a large picture of the back pocket of some jeans on it. And a dialog bubble coming out of the middle of the pants saying, "Please. You must help us. He's stealing the light from our eyes."

My dialog bubble would have said, "What the..." when I saw this. This was an ARC I had to read.

Grooves was slated for release in February of 2006, though. And despite great reviews from Booklist ("...a compulsively readable story with charmingly eccentric characters") and School Library Journal ("With its crazy deadpan humor, the novel is a hoot, and one of the best candidates for booktalking to come along in a long while."), I heard nothing further about it.

While cleaning off my bookshelves today, I noticed it lurking in a corner. "Now there's a book I wish I'd reviewed," I thought. Then I thought, "And why shouldn't I?"

Grooves is the very wacky story of Dwayne Bridges, who accidentally discovers that the grooves in his blue jeans, and even in his potato chips, can play messages like a phonograph record. They are all pleading for help, and claiming that a mysterious "he" is "stealing the light from our eyes." How weird is that?

Probably as weird as the fact that Dwayne notices that local businessman, Howard Thigpen, is always surrounded by a cloud of sparkles. And doesn't Thigpen own the jeans factory and the chip factory?

Yes, this makes perfect sense, right? Well, no, it doesn't. But that is the wonderful wackiness that is Grooves. It really is an intriguing mystery, and, oddly, not one so insane that the reader can't pick up the clues and hints. At the same time it delights in weirdness and wordplay.

Another delightfully odd book, The Neddiad, puts me in mind of Grooves. But while, thanks to its semi-popular author, The Neddiad came out with a fanfare, Grooves quickly faded from memory. And that's sad, because Grooves is really a jewel.

Great for all sexes -- it even has a nice, gender-mixed trio at its center -- and a good, broad age range (Amazon says 9 - 12, but I can imagine older kids enjoying it), Grooves deserves to be a sleeper hit.