Uniquely readable, entirely charming, and a pleasure from start to finish. Debuts this good are meant to be discovered.
— Betsy Bird
A riveting narrative . . . Theo makes an engaging narrator as she follows a winding trail of discovery.
— Booklist, starred review
What's hiding under the egg?
A mystery for readers who loved
Chasing Vermeer
and
From the Mixed-Up Files
of Basil E. Frankweiler
Only two people know about the masterpiece hidden in the Tenpenny home—
and one of them is dead.
The other is Theodora Tenpenny. Theo is responsible for tending the family's two-hundred-year-old town house, caring for a flock of unwieldy chickens, and supporting her fragile mother, all on her grandfather’s legacy of $463. So, when Theo discovers a painting in the house that looks like a priceless masterpiece, she should be happy about it. But Theo’s late grandfather was a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and if the painting is as valuable as she thinks it is, then her grandfather wasn't who she thought he was.
With the help of some unusual new friends, Theo's search for answers takes her all over Manhattan and introduces her to a side of the city—and her grandfather—that she never knew. To solve the mystery, she'll have to abandon her hard-won self-reliance and build a community, one serendipitous friendship at a time.
Under the Egg
Dial/Penguin
Hardcover, 256 pages
ISBN13: 9780803740013
Is this really the first thing she's written? Because it's so accomplished and it's packed with stuff . . . It's really a very compelling read, and I don't know how she did it. — Kate DiCamillo on NPR's
All Things Considered
A fast-paced mystery . . . If Dan Brown of The Da Vinci Code wrote middle-grade novels, this would be the one. — Kirkus Reviews
Fans of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler will find this another delightful lesson in art history. — PublishersWeekly
An enjoyable and sometimes poignant adventure. — Wall St. Journal