Hannah Sharpe, Cartoon Detective

Eleven-year-old Hannah Sharpe is the detective of her class, and she makes sense of the world by drawing. She is creating a comic about Dusty Pickle, a pickle cowgirl in the Wild West, and she sketches out confusing idioms and social situations to understand them better. Hannah is autistic, and this school year brings plenty of change: a new teacher, and a new friend renting the apartment over her family's garage. When a string of thefts hits her Northern California neighborhood, from stolen catalytic converters to missing packages, Hannah takes the case, even as it grows bigger than she expected. Janet Tashjian's illustrated mystery includes comics by her son, Jake Tashjian.