Mystery at the Biltmore #2: The Classified Catnapping

Written by Colleen Nelson

Illustrated by Peggy Collins

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-336-0

136 pp.

Ages 7-10

April 2025 

 

Things are certainly exciting at the Biltmore, the residence that Elodie LaRue lives at on the Upper West Side in New York City. Who knew that after her first case, The Vanderhoff Heist, that there would be another mystery to solve at the Biltmore during the same summer? And her next would begin with a murder! (Just kidding. It's just a movie.)

 

The courtyard of the Biltmore has become a movie set for a film that features the most famous feline resident of the building. Bijou, the very wealthy heir to the fortune of fashion designer Lucien Saint Martin, lives in a swanky apartment with her nanny, Paula Benson, who has had to leave her family, notably her 10-year-old daughter Tiya, in Queens. While visiting her mom, Tiya is tasked with getting a driver and car to pick up Bijou at her pet grooming salon while Paula is busy prepping for Bijou's big eighth-birthday bash. But Tiya arrives late at Spaw and learns that Bijou has already been picked up. So, the child asks Elodie and her sidekick Oscar, an aspiring stuntman and magician, to find Bijou before the party that night.

From Mystery at the Biltmore: The Classified Catnapping, written by Colleen Nelson, illustrated by Peggy Collins

The Biltmore has no shortage of suspects, from the regular residents like Mrs. Fineman and her noisy Pomeranian Lawrence, and Bianca Winthrop Parker Saint March, the niece of Bijou's cat daddy, to Freddy the doorman, and those associated with the movie, like the animal trainer, Bijou's agent, Bijou's biographer, and even stuntman Lance Beauregard. But Elodie and Oscar have to follow the clues, ask the right questions, and figure out the motive before they can catch the wrongdoer, hopefully before Paula finds out.

 

Colleen Nelson keeps young readers guessing with each chapter focused on another character. She puts out a number of red herrings–including of the fishy variety–but always helps the reader see the logic in Elodie and Oscar's thinking, never surprising them with unfair plot elements. Colleen Nelson actually makes the mystery solvable as the story progresses, but you have to pay attention. Elodie does, and she is always able to figure out who did the crime.

From Mystery at the Biltmore: The Classified Catnapping, written by Colleen Nelson, illustrated by Peggy Collins

The mystery is paramount and novel, and perfect for an early middle-grade reader. Mysteries can become convoluted and difficult to dissect but Colleen Nelson actually keeps the plot fairly linear, with no curve balls or weird surprises, thereby allowing the reader to follow with Elodie and Oscar, and Carnegie, her West Highland Terrier, as they unearth what everyone is and was up to. Then add some charming spot art from Peggy Collins, some word play like puns–who doesn't like Spaw as the name of a pet grooming salon?–an assortment of crazy stunts and magic tricks courtesy of Oscar, and The Classified Catnapping becomes an entertaining middle-grade cozy that will have young readers eager for another visit to the Biltmore.

 

🏢 🏢 🏢 🏢 🏢

 

Mystery at the Biltmore #1: The Vanderhoff Heist (2024)

Mystery at the Biltmore #2: The Classified Catnapping (April, 2025)

Mystery at the Biltmore: The Vanderhoff Heist

Written by Colleen Nelson

Illustrated by Peggy Collins

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-327-8

136 pp.

Ages 7-10

2024

 

Multi-family residences like hotels, resorts and apartment buildings are fabulous settings for elaborate mysteries, in which a host of suspects can be found within the residents, and Colleen Nelson has found a spectacular setting in her fictional historical residence, the Biltmore, on New York City's Upper West Side. It's loaded with character and characters that make the story rich in personality, both straightforward and intricate in its plotting, and playful in its delivery.

 

It's summer and Elodie LaRue has once again been abandoned to her nanny Miss Rosa by her globe-trotting art crime investigator parents. Determined to make something interesting out of her summer, Elodie posts notices that she is a detective available for hire. The very next day, she is contacted by Agnes, the housekeeper for the world-famous landscape architect Mrs. Vanderhoff whose sapphire earrings have disappeared from a velvet tray in her room. As Agnes is being blamed, the housekeeper encourages Mrs. Vanderhoff to hire Elodie and find the real culprit. 

From Mystery at the Biltmore: The Vanderhoff Heist, written by Colleen Nelson, illustrated by Peggy Collins

With the help of Carnegie, her West Highland Terrier, and a new resident and aspiring stunt person Oscar Delgado, Elodie sets out to solve the mystery of Mrs. Vanderhoff's missing jewels. Along the way, readers meet a menagerie of extraordinary people at the Biltmore, both employees and residents and visitors, as well as an assortment of furry and feathered friends. With so many potential suspects, Elodie and Oscar must put their little grey cells to work and sift through the clues to find the thief.

From Mystery at the Biltmore: The Vanderhoff Heist, written by Colleen Nelson, illustrated by Peggy Collins

I've often declared how challenging it is to write for early and early middle-grade readers. Getting the right mix of appropriate vocabulary and plot to meet their needs and interests without talking down to or above them is difficult. However, if Colleen Nelson has shown us anything, it's that she can write it all. She's written picture books, YA, non-fiction, and middle-grade novels. She's been nominated for countless awards, including the Governor General's Award, and won several readers' choice awards such as the Silver Birch award of the Forest of Reading and the Shining Willow award of the Saskatchewan Young Readers' Choice Awards. Her skill in getting the voice of her characters right, whether kindergarteners (Teaching Mrs. Muddle), middle graders (e.g., The Undercover Book List) or teens struggling with violence, addictions and bullying (e.g., Finding Hope, The Fall, Blood Brothers) or even a dog (e.g., Harvey Comes Home) allows her to create a plethora of worlds in which kids and teens face challenges, some more troubling than others, and find something inside that allows them to prevail. Here, Colleen Nelson has given readers a child whose world may be one of comfort, living at the Biltmore, having a nanny, loving her dog, and feeling secure enough to explore solving mysteries in safety but she also lets us see Elodie as a child who misses her parents and wants to have friends and not waste her summer doing nothing. Fortunately, Elodie's a go-getter and solving a mystery or two is what she's interested in doing. And she's good at it. She knows how to ask questions, how to look at the evidence, even outside-of-the box, and how to follow through. She's going to be an amazing detective. (Hopefully her parents will notice too.)

 

The plot, which feels very much like Only Murders in the Building without the murders, is both intricate and straightforward, perfect for the audience. But adding to Colleen Nelson's story is the darling spot art of Peggy Collins, the author-illustrator of the award-winning Harley the Hero. The art adds little bursts of colour to the book and helps readers envision the Biltmore and all its characters, improving readability and comprehension.

 

The second book in the Mystery at the Biltmore series releases in April (The Classified Catnapping) and I'll be reviewing it next so you can see where the series is going. Colleen Nelson has confidently transitioned Elodie from a potentially bored child to an emergent detective who is willing to help those in her building get the answers they need to their pressing mysteries. With Carnegie, Oscar, Miss Rosa and the others at the Biltmore, she'll be busy and gratified that the LaRue Detective Agency will have new mysteries to solve.

 

🏢 🏢 🏢 🏢 🏢

 

Mystery at the Biltmore #1: The Vanderhoff Heist (2024)

Mystery at the Biltmore #2: The Classified Catnapping (April, 2025)
 

Percy's Perfect Friend

Written by Lana Button

Illustrated by Peggy Collins

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-281-3

32 pp.

Ages 3-6

April 2023

 

Many very young children will be trying to fit into new school situations next month as they start schools and daycares for the first time or perhaps attend a new school because of a move or recent immigration. Finding a way to fit in and make friends can be very difficult, especially if the other kids have already established friendships. This is the situation for Percy when he joins a new class, and finds an unusual but perfect friend to help him fit in.

From Percy's Perfect Friend, written by Lana Button, illus. by Peggy Collins

The kids in Percy's new class are definitely having fun at their dress-up and imaginative play but he feels very alone and apart from the group. When he spots a fluffy pink cat, he introduces himself and, as part of his own play, names her Miss Petticomb.

From Percy's Perfect Friend, written by Lana Button, illus. by Peggy Collins

Cuddling his new pink friend, he "hears" her whisper that she wants a friend to play with and accommodates her. All morning she rests in his arms, being the friend he needs. But, when he places Miss Petticomb down to do some art, she disappears. He discovers the other kids have taken Miss Petticomb to be a guest at their tea party. It's only when he attempts to rescue her that Percy realizes that the pink cat can be the friend that brings them all together if they use their imagination and show a little flexibility.

From Percy's Perfect Friend, written by Lana Button, illus. by Peggy Collins

As an early child educator, Lana Button has seen how children play and more importantly how they enter play and make connections with other children. Many adults assume that children will just organically know how to make friends and fit in. As a teacher, I too have seen parents who encourage their young children to "Just go and play with those kids" without realizing how big a step that is for many children, just as it is for the rest of us. In Percy's Perfect Friend, Lana Button models for children how to engage with new friends by scaffolding that interaction with a perfect pink friend, although any toy might work as nicely. She sees the kids as they are, some exuberant and extroverted and others reserved and perhaps even anxious. A toy, whether pink or blue, soft or hard, can be that catalyst for meaningful and playful interaction.

Peggy Collins, the author-illustrator of the Blue Spruce award-winning picture book Harley the Hero, brings her cheerful digital artwork into the play-based classroom or preschool of young children. Her young characters represent all children of different abilities and ethnicities, energies and interests, and places them in a room of colourful tables and chairs, costumes and toys, teapots and books. It's an invitation to look and play and see, perfect for any child trying to find what interests them.

If you have a little one heading to preschool or a new school this fall and who may be anxious about making friends, Lana Button and Peggy Collins will show them how Percy did it and how he probably made more than one perfect friend in doing so.

Hungry for the Arts: Poems to Chomp On

Written by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming

Illustrated by Peggy Collins

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-466-9

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

March 2022

From the creative team that brought us Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On and Hungry for Science: Poems to Crunch On comes a new book of lively poetry based in the arts of drama, music, dance and visual arts. 

From Hungry for the Arts: Poems to Chomp On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illus. by Peggy Collins

Colour-coded to organize the poetry which can span several pages–orange for dance, green for drama, turquoise for music and purple for visual arts–authors Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori-Sherritt-Fleming take young readers onto the stage and into the studio to find ways to express themselves. They are encouraged to...

Munch on motion

Chomp on play.

Chew on chants.

Eat ARTS all day!

And to...

Choose buffets or a-la-carte.

Music,

  dance,

    drama, 

      art!

From Hungry for the Arts: Poems to Chomp On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illus. by Peggy Collins

There's the poem called "Those Cats Can Play" which has a quartet of felines improvising with a variety of notes and "A Little More Forte" in which an elephant and a house mouse must learn about forte, piano, decrescendo and crescendo. In the dance poems, identified by the orange dot in the corner of the first page, some dinosaurs disco, tango and hip hop their way across the dance floor ("Dinosaur Dance Floor") while in "The Whammy-Roo" a child in a wheelchair introduces her friend to her new dance.

From Hungry for the Arts: Poems to Chomp On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illus. by Peggy Collins

In the drama poems that include  "When I'm" and "A Dramatic Ride" kids try out movements, improvise with costumes and perform, imaging themselves as anything from a roller coaster to a tiger and a pirate. And the poems based in the visual arts are just as colourful and entertaining, encouraging young readers to think about textures and shapes and create from found objects. In the thirteen poems in the book, Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming introduce children to new terms–a snappy glossary summarizes this new vocabulary–and encourage them to explore the different art forms with some playful poems that may or may not rhyme.

From Hungry for the Arts: Poems to Chomp On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illus. by Peggy Collins

Peggy Collins, whose book Harley the Hero recently won the Forest of Reading's Blue Spruce Award, brings the joy of making art to the page. Her own artwork bursts from the story in an explosion of life through her use of colour and shape and line. There are no wallflowers in Hungry for the Arts. Every poem is animated with animals and children, robots and activity. As the creators make art, through their singing, their dancing, their performance and their displays, readers will learn from the words and the play.

We've munched on poems, crunched on poems and now we get to chomp on them too. With the rhythm of the music, the step of a light foot, a stroke of a brush and a flourish on a stage, Kari-Lynn Winters, Lori Sherritt-Fleming and Peggy Collins take us into the places where children get creative and express themselves in whatever art form speaks to them, and we're there to applaud all their efforts.

A Sky-Blue Bench

Written by Bahram Rahman

Illustrated by Peggy Collins

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-222-6

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

 November 2021

 

Bahram Rahman, author of The Library Bus (Pajama Press, 2020), returns the reader to Afghanistan and offers another hopeful tale of resilience and courage, creativity and endeavour.

From A Sky-Blue Bench by Bahram Rahman, illus. by Peggy Collins

Aria is an Afghan girl with lovely new red shoes and a helper-leg that she got after an accident. (Bahram Rahman's appended notes talk of land mines and unexploded ordinance.) While she is eager to be returning to school after her lengthy hospitalization, Aria is apprehensive, especially as all the wooden school furniture has been destroyed for firewood and the children now sit with bent knees on a floor tarp, something she will be unable to do.

From A Sky-Blue Bench by Bahram Rahman, illus. by Peggy Collins

Aria contemplates not returning to school but rejects that idea and instead comes up with the "brave idea" to build herself a bench. Most of the girls laugh at her plan but Aria is determined and she and her lone friend scavenge the city for discarded wooden boards, broken pieces of furniture, and random nails and screws. Then, Aria and her mother visit a carpenter in the old city who, for the gift of a loaf of bread, loans her an assortment of tools and a can of sky-blue paint.

"Sky-blue is the color of courage, peace and," he tapped at his temple, "wisdom."

From A Sky-Blue Bench by Bahram Rahman, illus. by Peggy Collins

And so a bench is created, and with it an opportunity for Aria and the other girls to take control of their own schooling needs.

Though Bahram Rahman makes it clear from his notes about circumstances he and others experienced in his homeland of Afghanistan, he does not dwell on the horrors of land mines or the challenges of living with a civil war. Instead Bahram Rahman speaks to a girl's determination to get an education, be proactive and resourceful, and to challenge herself to meet her own needs. It's a brave commentary on focusing on what you can change, not on what you can't, and Aria demonstrates that the possibilities can be inspiring. 

While there is a brightness and a child-like quality to her art, Peggy Collins (Harley the Hero, 2021) stays firmly in realism, but without immersing her art in the adversity of the situation. Aria's prosthetic leg is barely visible under her black dress and the challenges of the civil war are obscured by the vibrancy of the community in its activity and colour. Peggy Collins takes us into the Afghanistan of Aria's life, not of news reports: her school, her helper-leg, her mother and little brother, and her community. Her sky-blue bench is as assured as she is.

A Sky-Blue Bench may be a story from Afghanistan but its lessons about self-reliance and resourcefulness will speak to all children, especially those facing their own challenges, and encourage them to find solutions. With a desire, some hard work and a little wisdom, Aria was able to build something worthwhile, with wood and with vision.

Harley the Hero

Written and illustrated by Peggy Collins

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-195-3

Ages 4-7

32 pp.

June 2021

 

Most children are drawn to dogs. They want to pat them and hug them, call their names and get close. But service dogs must be treated differently so that they may help their human friends. Harley is one such service dog so he's a hero everyday for his person. But when there's a fire in the school where his person works, Harley proves he's able to share his strength with others when needed.

From Harley the Hero by Peggy Collins

Harley comes to school every day with Ms. Prichard "to help her feel safe so she can be the best teacher she can be." Harley is tethered to Ms. Prichard and the kids know that he is working, even when sleeping, and, though they've been cautioned to not distract him, he can't help but be tempted by feet which he loves to lick. Young Jackson enjoys getting a foot-lick from Harley but his best friend Amelia, a child with sensory processing issues, does not. Amelia, often seen wearing red noise-cancelling headphones, is very sensitive to noises and smells and touch, and Jackson helps protect her. In fact, he generously offers his feet for lick tickles so that Amelia, who wears two pairs of socks and red rubber boots in the classroom, can avoid them.

From Harley the Hero by Peggy Collins

Though they can't show Harley the love they might a non-service dog, Ms. Prichard has set up an Animail box where the kids can send him letters and gifts. (Surprisingly, vegetables often find their way to his Animail box!)

When a fire breaks out in the school, the class knows how to exit safely, but Amelia is thrown off by the sounds and the smells. Alerted by the panicked Jackson, Harley barks and pulls at his leash, discovering the girl cowering beneath the teacher's desk. By licking her boots, the big dog startles her into coming out and joining him and Ms. Prichard to crawl out of the school to safety.

From Harley the Hero by Peggy Collins

Needless to say, Harley is cheered as a hero and offered some well-deserved, though unusual, treats.

As mentioned in Peggy Collins's "Author's Note" and in a brief note from the teacher upon whom the story of Harley is based, Harley the Hero is a very real story. Because of that, Peggy Collins uses it to educate as well as entertain. The issues of individuals with invisible disabilities like PTSD and sensory processing disorder are addressed as are how to deal with service dogs. Not only does Harley the Hero teach about the diversity of disabilities and how some may be imperceptible, until they're not, as well as teaching about fire safety, it also enlightens students about the protocols for service animals in schools, especially as they become more common. But, beyond addressing these important issues, this picture book is simply an engaging story about an amazing dog who does a job and is loved by all. That's it. Peggy Collins highlights this with her cheerful digital illustrations rich in primary colours and diverse characters. Even when scenes are disturbed by the harshness of noise and smoke and fire, the brightness of the golden Harley and the colourfully-clothed Amelia and Ms. Prichard encourage and lift. 

Though school is still a number of weeks away, it will never to be too soon to prepare students and help develop their awareness of those with invisible disabilities, how to engage with service animals and what to do in the event of a fire. With Harley the Hero to assist, teaching and learning just became a whole lot more fun.

From Harley the Hero by Peggy Collins

Hungry for Science: Poems to Crunch On

Written by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming

Illustrated by Peggy Collins

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-396-9

32 pp.

Ages 6-9

June 2018

It's Science Literacy Week in Canada and Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming use rhyming verses and inclusive and diverse perspectives on biology, chemistry and physics in Hungry for Science: Poems to Crunch On to help children see the science in everything.

There are poems about geology, structures, life cycles, chemistry at work, seasons, magnetism, brain waves, senses, botany, force and differentiating between living and non-living things. It's the primary curriculum plus in a fun package of poetry and dynamic illustrations by Peggy Collins. And everyone is doing science: girls, boys, monsters, armadillos, physically-challenged individuals, kids with braces, kids with glasses, and kids of all hues and abilities.  It's science learning at its best and most lively.

She's hungry for science.
Her hunger's so great.
Stirring her mixtures
who'd guess that she's eight?

It's the manner in which the concepts are shared that makes Hungry for Science so entertaining. The life cycle of a flea in "An Ode to Flea" details the birth and death of Little Miss Pesky Flea who

Lived three months and caused such strife
a doggone long and itchy life!

Captain Chemistry helps unclog a sink drain with an all-purpose cleaner of baking soda and vinegar, and Scary Miss Mary shares how her odd garden of "carnivorous snappers and large creepy wrappers and that stinky, zombie-faced rose" grows.

From Hungry for Science: Poems to Munch On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illus. by Peggy Collins

With a glossary and descriptions of the concepts taught in each poem, Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming complete Hungry for Science with the expository text perfect for a book on science. Peggy Collins, who also illustrated Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming's earlier STEM picture book, Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2015), ensures the lightness and brightness of tone is reinforced in her artwork, adding quirky creative details like a rainbow of plumes from the primary sense organs and an evil below-ground carrot in Scary Miss Mary's garden.

From Hungry for Science: Poems to Crunch On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illus. by Peggy Collins

Have some fun with teaching simple science concepts to children with Hungry for Science: Poems to Crunch On and inspire a child to become a scientist everyday.

Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On

Written by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming

Illustrated by Peggy Collins

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-307-5

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

January, 2015

Teachers and parents will always be clamouring for new and innovative ways to introduce math concepts, and Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On will surely work.  But forget the classroom and math instruction, or at least put them aside temporarily, and enjoy the rhyme and reason of the verses within and the varied illustrations of dragons, foxes, clockworks and race cars to add the jauntiness that numbers and operations and such can be.

You know that between the dramatic flare of Kari-Lynn Winters and the Tickle Trunk Players founder, Lori Sherritt-Fleming, Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On has that special something to add spice to early math literacy learnings.  From unique poems like The Balanced Bee with its zen-like insect, the banging of the drum in Patterns Rock! and The Spendosaur in which a dinosaur goes a little crazy spending his coins in a candy store, the math lessons are neither obvious nor necessary to appreciate the silliness of the rhymes.

The Balanced Bee

Three circles, tall not wide.

Six legs – three per side.

Two plus two wings, on its back.

Bands of yellow, white, and black.

Compound eyes to spy the view.

Antennae, not one – always two.

Now fold your paper.

It's plain to see.

Bees are balanced.

It's symmetry! (pg. 5)

Even a poem like Move Around The Clock, that borrows from nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock, takes on a unique flair with an active mouse in a dress changing her movements with the time amongst the clockwork gears.

Whether you want your child to count the five groups of ten fire-breathing creatures in Rot-TEN Dragons or the abundance of heart-shaped treats (which look very familiar) shelled out amongst the cats in That Kitty Counts is irrelevant. Little ones will want to count the assortment of delectables, determine the banana leaves needed to cover the treasure and learn to skip count in 2s or 5s, especially with Peggy Collins' fun characters, human and non, to accompany them along the way.  Kids won't even know they're learning. That adds up to a book full of promise.