When anyone in town could be the culprit in a crime, summer will be anything but boring. Eleven-year-old Tracy Munroe and her family have just gotten back from their family vacation—why did no one realize that her little brother, Lester a.k.a. Pig Face, was allergic to sand, salt air, and the ocean before they decided to go to the beach?—and now she has three big goals to accomplish before she goes back to school: Figure out a fantastic end of summer adventure with her best friend, Ralph, budding Michelin-star chef. (And no, Ralph, perfecting a soufflé does not count.) Make sure Pig Face does not tag along. Get the gorgeous new boy next door, Zach, to even know she exists. But when Tracy and Ralph discover an envelope stuffed with money in the dugout at baseball field (and Lester forces them to let him help), they have a mystery on their hands. Did someone lose the cash? Or, did someone steal it? St. Stephens has always seemed like a quiet place to live, but soon the town is brimming with suspects. Now they’re on a hunt to discover the truth, before the trio is accused of the crime themselves. McLeod MacKnight’s debut middle grade novel is a funny, charming window into small-town life, with a focus on the importance of friendship and family and the struggle to figure out where you fit in, perfect for fans of Polly Horvath and Sarah Weeks.

The Milo & Jazz Mysteries stars two kid detectives-in-training who use STEM problem-solving skills as they race to unravel cases and save the day! Perfect for fans of Encyclopedia Brown, Cam Jansen and Nate the Great. Who would want to harm an adorable pet piglet? Milo and Jazz have to find out the identity of the mysterious pig poisoner. And there’s no time to lose! This ideal series for beginning readers making the transition to chapter books has incredible Super Sleuthing activities in each book, including hidden pictures, puzzles, mini-mysteries, and quizzes—plus free online activities.

Known as much for their pink curly tails and pudgy snouts as their low-brow choice of diet and habitat, pigs are prevalent in popular culture—from the Three Little Pigs to Miss Piggy to Babe. Today there are more than one billion pigs on the planet, and there are countless representations of pigs and piggishness throughout the world’s cultures. In Pig, Brett Mizelle provides a richly illustrated and compelling look at the long, complicated relationship between humans and these highly intelligent, sociable animals. Mizelle traces the natural and cultural history of the pig, focusing on the contradictions between our imaginative representation of pigs and the real-world truth of the ways in which pigs are prized for their meat, used as subjects in medical research, and killed in order to make hundreds of consumer products. Pig begins with the evolution of the suidae, animals that were domesticated in multiple regions 9,000 years ago, and points toward a future where pigs and humans are even more closely intertwined as a result of biomedical breakthroughs. Pig both examines the widespread art, entertainment, and literature that imagines human kinship with pigs and the development of modern industrial pork production. In charting how humans have shaped the pig and how the pig has shaped us, Mizelle focuses on the unresolved contradictions between the fiction and the reality of our relations with pigs.

A Splendid Table Staff Book Pick of the Year "Estabrook, a reporter of iron constitution and persistence, has dug deep into the truth about the American pork industry without losing his sense of humor and humanity." —Christopher Kimball, Wall Street Journal In Pig Tales, New York Times best-selling author of Tomatoland Barry Estabrook turns his attention to the dark side of the American pork industry. Drawing on personal experiences raising pigs as well as sharp investigative instincts, Estabrook covers the range of the human-porcine experience. He shows how these intelligent creatures are all too often subjected to lives of suffering in confinement and squalor, sustained on a drug-laced diet just long enough to reach slaughter weight. But Estabrook also reveals how it is possible to raise pigs responsibly and respectfully, benefiting producers and consumers—as well as some of the top chefs in America. Provocative, witty, and deeply informed, Pig Tales is bound to spark conversation at dinner tables across America.

Help Jack and Meg solve the case of the lost pig! This story uses an engaging mystery story to encourage confidence in early readers. This book uses a combination of sight words and short-vowel words in repetition to build recognition. Original illustrations help guide readers through the text. Text and format is created by Cecilia Minden, PhD, a literacy consultant and former director of the Language and Literacy program at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Books in this series include author biography, phonetics, and teaching guides.

The village of Winter Parva has decided to host a pig roast in the town square. Agatha, always one for a good roasting, has arrived with her former protg and current rival in the private detection racket to enjoy the merriment. But as the rotary spit is placed over a bed of fiery charcoals, Agatha realizes that things are not as they seem. Martin's Press.