Death by Whoopee Cushion

A practical joke device gone rogue proves fatal in this twisty whodunit by Grant (A Green Velvet Secret). Middle schooler Manya, whose parents own a joke shop, and her best friend Isaac, who lives next door in the apartment above his mother’s lingerie store, are aspiring scientists. Though they persuade their parents to let them participate in Serious Science for Serious Kids, an after-school program located at the Museum of Natural History, the course has a steep enrollment fee. Manya’s father—who’s been conducting experiments with new pranking devices, such as artisanal whoopee cushions, to increase joke shop profits—believes he can offset the cost. But after an incident in which a whoopee cushion explodes and kills the school janitor during her family’s joke shop presentation at her middle school lands Manya’s parents in jail, accused of murder, Manya and Isaac must employ their science acumen and stealth to prove her parents were framed. Despite an elongated setup, steady tension, high personal stakes, and uniquely rendered relationships drive the story forward as Grant explores one preteen’s complex feelings about her “embarrassing” parents and their lives before her across bouncy first-person narration. Characters are described as having varying skin tones. Ages 10–14. Agent: Fiona Kenshole, Transatlantic Literary. (July)