Rory Branagan (Detective): Book 1

We listen to these books all the time! My boy loves them. He runs around the house quoting it. It can be really hard to tempt him into reading, but if he loves it, it will be a repeat. The illustrations in the book are beautiful and the audiobook is so lively. The combo of the two is thrilling! Andrew Clover has a magical voice.There is some peril in these books but the way it's written is low level and he has not been disturbed by it. Normally he can't stop yakking on about bad guys, but with the Rory books, he's firmly on the young detective's side. Be warned though, anything Corner Boy says about bowel movements will get shouted back ad nauseum, hah!

Funny, fast-paced with a quirky humour and real heart, this is a thoughtful comic detective story. I think it will hugely appeal to anyone with a sense of curiosity and adventure.

My son loved this book from page one. Rory Branagan is fun and fearless oh and is actually a detective! A great read my son is now hooked on the series. Brilliant illustrations of characters.

Really enjoyable. Loved the story and illustrations. Can’t wait for next book

My 9 year old son loves these books.

Brought this for my daughters birthday and she loves it

Great book. Big hit with my 8 year old.

We love it!

I got to know this series in Chinese version, and I tried a lot to look for the English title. Very funny books, I have bought all the published ones for my son. The pictures help a lot to understand the contents for non English speakers.

Absolutely the best book! Your kids (and you) will LOVE this! Its fun and silly and totally engaging. Brilliant! Can't wait for the second book...

Gift for grandson who loves this series

At first I wasn't sure if I could get into 350 pages of stick figures. Well. Excuuuuuse me for being such a drip. This book was an engaging hoot.First off, as to the art, these aren't really stick figures. They're more like sneaky minimalist sketches that, once you get on track, are clever and expressive. Sure, the kids don't have hands or feet, and the arms and legs are sticks, but the secret is in the faces and especially the eyes. Name an emotion, an attitude, or a thought, and this illustrator will give you the right eyes. This book is for young readers, and these illustrations just guide you right through the narrative. It's quite an accomplishment.As to the narrative, it is as antic as you might expect. You have the kid hero detective, who starts out sort of confused and a bit gormless. You have the smart as a whip, slightly acid, almost a know-it-all, spunky kid girl hero. This follows the tradition of kid detectives who don't quite know what they're doing, never fully understand exactly what's happening, and stumble around with lots of high energy and good intentions until inspiration strikes and the mystery gets solved.But apart from the mystery and the action, the most fun is just following the mind of our hero Rory. The narrative is in the first person, so what you get is pure Rory telling you a story. It jumps around, it ebbs and flows, the mood is haphazard, and the whole thing is an energetic rollercoaster ride. Since Rory is a decent, relatable kid the overall effect is upbeat and authentic in an exaggerated and manic way. And, since the overall story arc for the six books in this series has to do with how and why Rory's Dad disappeared, there's some shameless heartstring tugging going on as well.I have no idea where to put the reading demo here. It could be for ambitious younger readers who are willing to let some of the bits go over their heads, or it could be for older and more confident readers who don't mind the sketchy art and the youngish main characters. Either way this was enough knuckleheaded fun that I'd be happy to try this first volume on any kid just to see if it clicked. As I said, I thought it was a goofy hoot.