Book Review: Down the Rabbit Hole
Rated by 3 members
What Parents Should Know
Parents should know that many of Ingrid's actions are
dishonest and dangerously stupid, and there are no consequences
for any of them -- the police chief even shakes her hand after
he hears her whole story, which includes repeatedly lying to
him.
Families who read this book can discuss Ingrid's actions, and whether there could have been smarter and less dangerous ways of solving her dilemmas. Also, parents could use this book to talk about deductive reasoning.
Common Sense Media Review
This is the first children's book by Peter Abrahams, a
popular writer of adult mysteries, and it follows the
teen-girl-detective formula pretty closely: plucky girl
stumbles into mystery, decides to solve it herself rather than
confide in adults, juggles mystery with school life, avoids
being noticed by clueless parents, gets into mortal danger,
solves mystery, explains it to police. There may be more
character development here, but it's basically Nancy Drew
updated for the 21st century.
The frustration here, though, is that Ingrid, despite her love for Holmes, is just not all that bright. Nancy Drew was smarter than everyone else, which is why she was able to solve the mystery. Ingrid just happens to stumble into clues the police aren't aware of, and alert readers will have put it together long before she does. Worse, they will realize that had she just told the police chief, who happens to be her boyfriend's dad and apparently a pretty nice, reasonably bright guy, what she knew, he would have put it together too, and saved her all the lying and sneaking around, not to mention the tacked-on dramatic dénouement.
From the Book:
Ingrid Levin-Hill, three weeks past her thirteenth
birthday, sat thinking in her orthodontist's waiting room.
You're born cute. Babies are cute. Not hard to guess why--it's
so everyone will forgive them for being such a pain. You grow a
little older, and people say, "What beautiful hair," or "Get a
load of those baby blues," or something nice that keeps you
thinking you're still on the cuteness track. Then you hit
twelve or thirteen and boom, they tell you that everything
needs fixing. Waiting in the wings are the orthodontist, the
dermatologist, the contact lens guy, the hair-tinting guy,
maybe even the nose-job guy. You look at yourself in the
mirror, really look at yourself, for the first time. And what
do you see? Oh my God.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
