Sherlock Bones and the Natural History Mystery by Renee Treml
Published by Etch/HMH Books for Young Readers on September 22, 2020
ISBN: 0358311853
Pages: 272
Genres: Animals, Humor
Format: Graphic Novel
Goodreads

Sherlock Bones is the fossil of a Tawny Frogmouth (an Australian bird species) that comes to life after dark in the natural history museum. Along with his pal Watts, a stuffed bird, they are on the case when the most valuable gemstone in the world goes missing from the museum.

The idea behind this story is cute, but the execution isn’t the best. It’s unclear why the skeleton of a bird comes to life but the stuffed version of a different bird doesn’t. There’s also a live raccoon in the museum who provides comic relief, but the majority of the book is a one-way dialog between Sherlock Bones and Watts. The illustrations are black and grey, and help move the story along but aren’t anything to rave about. The humor is cute and appropriate for the age range, though the size of a lot of the text feels small for the young target audience. There are better graphic novels out there. Appropriate for 3rd grade and up.

Reviewed by Jessie Trafton, Skidompha Library, Damariscotta, ME