National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honoree Lisa Yee (Maizy Chen's Last Chance) plays out every awkward preteen's fantasy in the humorously charming opener to a new illustrated series, The Misfits, in which a team of nerds solve crimes. A Royal Conundrum introduces 12-year-old Olive Cobin Zang and her classmates, who work together to stop a notorious jewel thief and save their boarding school. National Book Award-winner and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat (A First Time for Everything) enhances the book's charming zaniness with black-and-white art.
Olive is taken out of her current school under what seem like suspicious circumstances, and is dropped off at RASCH (the Reforming Arts School) by her jet-setting parents. After only one night at the school, she receives a note: "Report to your Conundrum in the headmaster's office." The results of this test, she learns, determine her placement at RASCH and whether she's "even RASCH material" at all. To Olive's relief, she excels; she and four other students are assigned to the school's super-secret No One Can Know (NOCK) unit.
Yee expertly interlaces elements of spy thrillers with the comic components of a madcap caper, like a ballet-dancing secret agent. Her young protagonists each bring their own distinctive skills to NOCK, and when the self-named Misfits solidify their bond, they realize their full potential as crime fighters and friends. Santat's trademark energetic and dynamic grayscale illustrations give readers an extra level of storytelling. There is nothing puzzling about A Royal Conundrum. It is action, adventure, and fun with a heartening group of young underdogs. --Jen Forbus, freelancer