Bibliographical information:

Hale, Bruce. The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse. New York: Harcourt, 2000.  A Chet Gecko mystery.     

Brief summary:

Chet Gecko is a fourth-grade private eye--also a lizard. He's hired by Shirley Chameleon to find her missing brother, which he does with the help of Natalie the mockingbird, his partner.

Comments:

This is an amusing illustrated mystery appropriate to kids starting to read chapter books. The stakes of the mystery are fairly low--there's a threat of mayhem at a football game, but it doesn't ever seem to be mayhem in which anyone will be seriously injured.  There's some bathroom humor (literally--for example a character named Frenchy LaTrine) and general irreverence toward teachers. Though my fifth grader often reads harder stuff, she liked this enough to want to read another in the series.

Grade/Age level:

Grades 2-5 

Cautions:

--Lisa Gordis

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