Masterpiece by Elise Broach, illustrated by Kelly Murphy (Holt, $16.95, 9780805082708/0805082700, 304 pp., ages 10-15, September 2008)
Broach's (Shakespeare's Secret) middle-grade novel layers a miniature world (on two levels), a passion for art, a mystery and a friendship into a highly satisfying reading experience. Marvin, a beetle who lives with his large extended family beneath the Pompaday family's kitchen sink in New York City, wants to do something special for the human James's 11th birthday. After some deliberation and a great amount of effort, Marvin delivers a buffalo nickel to the boy's room. But he finds himself pulled to the pen-and-ink set on James's desk--a gift from the boy's artist father, Karl Terik. Marvin uses his two front legs to make an intricate drawing of the scene outside the boy's window, and its superior quality attracts a great deal of attention, not only from James (who immediately befriends the talented beetle), but also from the boy's keen-eyed mother, his stepfather and also Karl, who exclaims that it's very similar to the work of Albrecht Duerer. Karl takes his son to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to witness the resemblance for himself; and the boy tucks Marvin into his jacket pocket so he can come along. There they run into Karl's college friend, Denny, curator of drawings at the Getty Museum. What follows is an intricate plot to catch an art thief, putting to work James's purported talent. Broach makes the most of Marvin's beetle's-eye view of the world, for both its practical applications (the ease with which he finds hiding places) and the humor it affords (concerning James's raucous birthday party guests, Marvin's mother cautions, "These are the kinds of boys who'd pull the legs off a beetle just for the fun of it"). Murphy's illustrations also exploit these opportunities: One standout is when she pictures James's face, his nose and mouth obscured as he observes Marvin copying Duerer's drawing Fortitude. Best of all, Broach creates a wonderful parallel between the book's two overarching and interconnected themes: "A great friendship was like a great work of art, [Marvin] thought. It took time and attention, and a spark of something that was impossible to describe."--Jennifer M. Brown
