Customer Reviews

The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Chet Gecko is a lizard with an attitude. He's also the guy to go to if you have a mystery to solve at Emerson Hicky Elementary School. In the first book of the Chet Gecko mystery series, The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse, Shirley the Chameleon asks for Chet's help in locating her missing brother, a troublesome first grader named Billy. With the promise of a piece of stinkbug pie and a "cootie" filled kiss from Shirley, Chet sets off to solve the mystery.

His detective work leads him to an assortment of unsavory characters: the Rat sisters, who steal his lunch and give him misleading clues; two frightening teachers, Mrs. Toaden (a toad) and Mrs. Glick (an alligator), who almost prevent Chet from solving his case; and Herman the Gila Monster, a huge, poisonous, sixth grade football player, who is up to something bad. With the help of a mockingbird friend named Natalie Attired, Chet finds his way in and out of the classroom in his rush to solve the mystery before the football game that afternoon.

Author Bruce Hale narrates the story from Chet's point of view, and Chet's smart, cool attitude is portrayed through his thoughts and dialogue. Unique, humorous descriptions serve to highlight each character. However, the sheer number of characters makes the story a bit confusing to follow and doesn't allow the reader to connect as well with the main characters. The plot also drags on and on, and the final conflict doesn't seem to be important enough to take up a whole book. Also, the overly witty dialogue gets a bit redundant at times. Perhaps, for a child, the story is more intriguing than for me as an adult. (I'll have to test it out with my class.)

For kids looking for a good laugh and an unusual situation (such as a school consisting of mainly amphibians, reptiles, and rodents), this may be a decent book. While the mystery and plot wasn't particularly interesting, the characters themselves are fun to read about. The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse can be recommended as a light read for children ages 8 and up.

The jokes are great! It got me right from the start. An excellent introduction to an excellent series.

The part when he solved the mystery the best except when he got kissed. That was very sick. I am reading the second book. My brother wants to read it too. I liked Chet and his partner the Mockingbird the best.

In Hebrew the character "Chet" is written the same way as the Greek character "pi" (any circle's circumference divided by its diameter = pi). So Chet's first name *sort of* means pi (P.I.: Private Investigator). Just another of Hale's endless, clever puns.

This book was written in the style of an old Mickey Spillane novel... I found it extremely enjoyable to read to my class! Some parts were a little difficult to understand because of numerous similes... but it was a fun opportunity to work on the subtleties of language. My class wants to read all of the Chet Gecko mysteries now. I highly recommend it for your 9 or 10 year old!

Some of my fourth grade second language students were having trouble understanding and enjoying this book, so I picked it up and started to read it to see why. The way in which the dialogue for the characters is written is right out of a 1940's detective movie, and students of this age group and background do not have familiarity with such movies. I decided to read it as a read aloud to the class. It was a HUGE hit! Very humorous! Very witty! Now all the students want to read more of the books and are clamoring for the ones I have.

Then this is the book for you! I'm 8 years old and I read this book...I thought is was GREAT!!! Chet books are great for just sitting down and reading. It makes you laugh but it's also exciting. I recommend this book to kids of all ages.

This first Chet Gecko mystery has it all. Danger of the worst disaster possible in elementary school--total public embarrassment--unless our hero can crack the case by the end of the school day. Villains and ne'er-do-wells. A character with true-to-life reptilian traits and appetites but a voice that's half classic sleuth half comic strip. Droll drawings. Gross humor and corny puns. A female classmate who outwits Chet almost to the end. And best of all--there are five more Chet Gecko Mysteries in the works!