In this tender, comical and thrilling (yes, all three!) middle-grade novel, a cautious, thoughtful boy--more inspired by virtual adventures than real-life escapades--finds himself embroiled in a mystery involving stolen beehives, a wild pig named Penelope and more puns than can be BEElieved.
Leo's father, who is fixated on a personality quiz site called Fatefinder.com, claims that 11-year-old Leo is an "Auditor," someone who envisions "everything that can possibly go wrong." Leo's younger sister, Lizzie, to his chagrin, is an "Adventurer." Leo is indeed nervous when he and Lizzie are left for a few days with their grandfather, who has become very grumpy ever since his wife died. When their grandmother's beloved apiary goes missing, Leo decides it's time to shed his Auditor ways and find those bees. What he doesn't realize is that it's his careful, questioning Auditor nature that this mystery needs.
The Big Sting is as much a family and identity story as an adventure mystery. Leo and Lizzie barely know their grandfather, but the awkwardness and uncertainty begin to melt as they launch their investigation. Rachelle Delaney (Clara Voyant) does a marvelous job illustrating the pitfalls of labeling people. "I think we [label] to make people seem less complicated, so we can predict what they're going to do," Grandpa's friend Mo says. "But people are complicated, and that's a good thing. We're all delightfully complicated." This sweet family mission makes those human complications delightfully relatable. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor