The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family

February 1, 2021

Gr 3-7-Twelve-year-old Lara Finkel's determination to become as successful a detective as her literary heroine, Georgia Ketteridge, leads her to create her own agency, FIASCCO (Finkel Investigative Agency Solving Consequential Crimes Only). Lara isn't prepared when the only mysteries she finds are strange behaviors in her own family, and her spying leads to her uncovering secrets she would rather not know. Her discoveries include the dismaying news that her father has lost his job, her brothers are both hiding things from their parents, her annoyingly perfect cousin is having difficulties, and her sister, Caroline, who is her best friend, has replaced her with a boy at school who is a very bad influence. In a family where her father has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and she and her sister are autistic, Lara feels attacked, and hits back at her family by sharing all their problems, and further separating herself. Kapit doesn't lean on stereotypes usually characterizing characters on the spectrum. Lara finds a reasonable way to interact with her family through the rabbi's sermon during Yom Kippur, discovering the road to forgiveness. VERDICT Disabilities are an everyday part of the protagonists' lives and secondary to the issues they are dealing with here, making this a book that will appeal to readers of Cynthia Lord's Rules. This is a worthy first purchase for school and public libraries.-Betsy Fraser, Calgary P.L., Canada

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2021
Lara and her 15-months-younger sister, Caroline, both autistic, encounter a variety of challenges in middle school. Lara decides to organize her own detective firm, channeling her favorite mystery series character. Unfortunately, the cases she decides to investigate all involve members of her family, and her investigations come very close to spying. Once she discovers secrets, she also shows little ability to keep them private. Caroline, who communicates via an app that speaks the words she types, wants to make her own way in middle school, staking out some independence from her sister. She's befriended by somewhat socially awkward Micah, who decides the two should play a prank on a popular girl who humiliated and belittled Caroline. Not wanting to endanger their blossoming friendship, Caroline reluctantly goes along with the plan. Meanwhile, the sisters discover that their ADHD-afflicted father has lost his job. The family is Jewish, with both Sephardic and Ashkenazi roots, and cultural details are nicely depicted in chapters that alternate between the sisters' points of view, providing insight into their lives. Although Lara and Caroline are the most well developed, the family dynamics reveal a deep-seated love and, occasionally, believably faltering tolerance for each other under the guidance of their caring but realistically challenged parents. Kapit keeps the focus squarely on how much the sisters share with their neurotypical classmates. A gentle exploration of family dynamics. (Fiction. 10-13)

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March 15, 2021
Grades 3-6 Kapit's (Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen!, 2020) sophomore novel opens with the establishment of FIASCCO (Finkel Investigative Agency Solving Consequential Crimes Only) by 12-year-old Lara. Her 11-year-old sister, Caroline, is dejected after not being allowed to join, and the two only grow more distant as the school year begins. Caroline, who uses a tablet to talk (in an English accent!), on account of being nonverbal, is nervous about making friends, and bossy, overprotective Lara only makes it harder. What ensues isn't a mystery novel, but the detective-agency conceit is used to frame Lara's "investigations" into her family members' secrets and the conflicts they cause. Sections alternate between the sisters' points of view, giving insight into the minds of two autistic characters--a kidlit rarity. Happily, the family's neurodiversity (Dad has ADHD) is never the focus, though it colors the characters and their struggles, as does the family's Jewish identity. All in all, this is a sweet tale of two sisters who learn how to take responsibility for their mistakes and find that familial love is stronger than they knew.

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