From Booklist
Gr. 3-5. All the world's a stage, and all the players are suspects in fourth-grade lizard sleuth Chet Gecko's eighth mystery. Emerson Hickey Elementary School is starting to rehearse a new play,
Omlet: The Prince of Denver, when Scott, the lead, disappears. Horrified to be cast as Scott's replacement, Chet is desperate to find "the missing thespian." As Gecko's fans will know, there are lots of wild complications ahead, including a bruiser of a badger who is out to stop Chet, and a ghost who haunts rehearsals. Kids may be puzzled by the story's loose connections, and many of the Shakespearean references will fly over their heads. But whether or not they know Hamlet's story, they'll pick up the slapstick in lines such as, "Alas, poor Yorick, / You're really, really dead / There's nothing left behind you / Except an empty head." There's also plenty of satisfying silliness in the cast of buffoonish teachers, Chet's tough-guy appeal, and the usual repertoire of painfully corny puns and similes. Hale's own black-and-white drawings illustrate.
Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Booklist
"Plenty of satisfying silliness ... Chet's tough-guy appeal, and the usual repertoire of painfully corny puns and similes."
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
