Johnny Swanson (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Johnny Swanson Elizabeth Bush Updale, Eleanor . Johnny Swanson. Fickling/Random House, 2011. [384p]. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-385-75199-5 $19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-385-75198-8 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-375-89688-0 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-8. Johnny Swanson, the smallest kid in his class, secretly spends three shillings that he and his widowed mother can't spare in response to an ad that promises the "Secret of Instant Height." The answer by return post, "Stand on a box," doesn't increase his stature, but it does inspire him with a host of ideas for scams of his own, which he promptly launches to help keep the landlord at bay when the rent comes due. Johnny digs himself ever deeper in lies to keep his enterprise going in a small 1929 village where everyone knows everybody's business, and soon he's concocted a cover story of an ailing aunt on a visit who has a modest mail-order needlework trade of her own. Johnny's petty swindle pales, though, beside a truly heinous crime in the neighborhood: Dr. Langford, known for his good works at a tuberculosis sanitarium, is found slain in his home; his wife is missing; and Johnny's mother, who cleans house for them, is arrested as the killer. Johnny strongly suspects that the murder may be related to Langford's covert work on a TB vaccine used by the French but banned in Britain, and as the boy investigates to save his mother, his own life is on the line. There's flair and entertainment here for sure, but the two crime themes don't always mesh as smoothly as one might like, lurching in tone from comic mischief to mortal peril, and wrapping up on a note of new dad/new stepsister/ happy ever after. While this may be a far cry, stylistically, from the sure-handed panache of Updale's Montmorency series (Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman, BCCB 4/04, et al.), younger readers who prefer their mysteries diluted with a dash of humor may still feel they're getting their money's worth. [End Page 349] Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois