“The story is crazy, the storytelling hilarious
and
you might even learn what it means to be on a jury.”Karen
Leggett of CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
“...Read on for the pleasure of the unraveling...scheme
and for the linguistic pleasures Kate Klise provides. Artist M. Sarah
Klise matches her sister’s sense of fun with outrageous layouts and
sketches throughout the text. ” HORN
BOOK
“A clever, entertaining mystery with a protagonist
who learns about the legal process and about keeping an open mind.”
Shelle Rosenfeld of BOOKLIST
“The authors of Letters From Camp (1999)
again take diaristic fiction to another level with a tale of grown-up
chicanery told entirely in correspondence, casual sketches, printed ephemera,
receipts, newspaper pages, advertisements, transcripts of radio news programs,
and journal entries. Despite the lack of a body, everyone in Tyleville
believes that slow-witted loner Bob White has killed 11-year-old Perry
Keet. Thanks to a new state law, Perry’s classmate Lily gets an insider’s
view of the ensuing trial, for she is chosen to sit on Bob White’s
jury, even though it means being sequestered and losing weeks of school.
Lily’s journal, along with notes and sketches from fellow jurors,
link a sheaf of circumstantial evidence that gradually points not to Bob,
but to Tyleville’s resident tycoon, Rhett Tyle, and his secret confederate,
Anna Conda. They are con artists who had been planning to turn the local
zoo’s huge snake collection into a line of designer fashions, but
are now preparing for a quick getaway after auctioning off the oeuvre
of the zoo’s new star attraction: a gorilla named Priscilla, who
has suddenly started painting recognizable pictures. Sound complicated?
That’s only an overviewbut
the Klises keep it all in the air with expertly timed revelations, distinct
character voices, and seemingly bottomless reserves of droll, inventive
humor, and readers get a surprisingly credible look at how the jury system
works.” KIRKUS
“The sisters Klise once again use the format they
mastered in Regarding the Fountain to cleverly recount Lily Watson’s
experience as the “first juvenile juror in the state's history.”
This three-ring circus, with Lily as capable ringmaster, will set in motion
readers’ flights of fancy from beginning to end, when a “wolf
in sheep’s clothing” receives his comeuppance and the innocent
“jailbird” is set free. PUBLISHER’S
WEEKLY
