Edenville Owls, by Robert Parker
Parker, Robert B. (2007). The Edenville Owls. NY: Philomel. 224 pages.
Now, I love a good mystery and am always excited when the prospect of a great addition to the YA mystery canon appears. This novel, however, is not destined to be one of the YA greats. Set in the mid 1940s, this novel by adult mystery writer Parker involves its fourteen-year-old protagonist Bobby in a mystery plaguing one of the adult citizens of his small Massachusetts town of Edenville. When Bobby’s beloved teacher Miss Delaney comes to school with a black eye and Bobby and his friends, known as The Owls (the friends are on an independent basketball team “coached” by Bobby), witness a mysterious man harassing the teacher, the gang decides to find out what’s going on. Soon, Bobby, as the self-appointed leader of the crew, is hiding out in Miss Delaney’s attic (creepy!) and spying on the gravel-voiced man responsible for her black eye.
Dude, this book was soooo lame! I hate it when adult authors craft novels for young people that are really aimed at their adult audience. The cheesy pseudo-autobiographical detail and indulgent “greatest generation” details of post World War II life were so not needed. I had a hard time believing Bobby as a fourteen-year-old, much less a sleuth who, with his gang of junior high basketballers, could effectively blackmail a white supremacist to get him to leave town and stop bothering their innocent teacher. Give me a break, man. This book is for the birds.