Have A Problem? Let's Go Shopping!

Zoe Sophia in New York: The Mystery of the Pink Phoenix Papers

by Claudia Mauner and Elisa Smalley; illustrations by Claudia Mauner

Reviewed by Deb Clark

The other day, I overheard a couple of mommies chatting near me on a park bench while we watched our kids play. For a good five minutes, one woman went on and on about what she had bought recently at Nordstrom, as well as what a friend had purchased (seven pairs of shoes at one time!). When she finally took a breath, her bench-mate launched into a list of her Nordstrom buys. As a woman who owns maybe seven pairs of shoes total – many of them several years old – I felt a lot like an anthropologist uncovering unfamiliar customs of a rather shallow culture.

I had a similar feeling reading Zoe Sophia in New York, the second book in a series about a 9-year-old rich kid who lives in New York’s Upper West Side with her parents and “Blossom, our Jamaican housekeeper.”

In this latest book, Zoe Sophia gets a visit from her great aunt, Dorothy Pomander, a famous writer who travels from Venice for a reading of her latest work. Dorothy enlists Zoe Sophia’s help in searching for the only known copy of a book about a stone scarab known as the Pink Phoenix. As a fan of Harriet the Spy, Zoe Sophia jumps at the chance to unravel the mystery. The cartoonish, watercolor-and-ink illustrations show the pair as they visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the pink stone scarab, the penguin house at Central Park Zoo to think, a fancy restaurant to eat, the New York Public Library to do a (very) little research, and the Lincoln Center to take in a ballet.

The next day they hit pay dirt, when they … go shopping? Yes, it’s true. In Greenwich Village, after buying fountain pen cartridges, a pencil, and “matching Pino Raton handbags,” they browse a secondhand bookshop and come across the only remaining copy of the exact book Dorothy wants.

Wait. What? They don’t need to follow up on clues? Solve any mysteries? Nope, they just find the missing book while shopping. Where’s the achievement in that? Any bozo can go to the store. What kind of lesson is this for my daughters – shopping leads to success? If anyone thinks this is a positive message for kids, I weep for the future.

Rating: No buds

Comments

[brettdl]

I had the same reaction when I read this book.

[Tadamack]

Whoa, and YUCK! I complain about this kind of stuff in YA, but who knew it was a trend in middle grade books, too? How depressing.

[Anne]

I swear I had an allergic reaction to this book, which is sad. It had some of the right elements: a funky auntie, a missing piece of exotica, plus a New York City backdrop. The author didn't seem to know what to do with the material.