Griff might be the new kid on the Rampart Jr. High Patrol squad, but he?s no rookie. And he?ll do whatever it takes to clean up the mean hallways of his middle school?even if it lands him in hot water.
But when Griff links cool kid Marcus ?The Smile? Volger to a counterfeit hall pass ring, can he and his friends close the case? Or will Griff let down the force?and lose his badge?for good?
Starred review from March 29, 2010
In what reads like a deliberately clichéd police procedural, first-time novelist Krieg takes readers inside the squeaky-clean hallways of Rampart Middle School, where new student Griff Carver immediately smells something fishy. Griff, a seasoned safety patrol officer whose reputation for razor-sharp instincts and tough-guy attitude has preceded him, is forced to team up with chatterbox Tommy, a by-the-books Boy Scout, to weed out a counterfeit hall pass gang. With comically over-the-top cop lingo—“I'd had enough commanding officers over the years to know that that's what they were. Politicians. Kids looking to score a few points on their magnate high school application”—Griff and Tommy tell their stories through incident reports and interviews, adding drama and humor to the most mundane aspects of school. Krieg cleverly depicts Rampart as a microcosm of society, complete with smarmy “student govie types,” a gutsy school reporter (who contributes diary-style chapters), and dedicated but underappreciated hallway patrol officers (“A hero's just a sandwich the cafeteria served us every Wednesday,” Griff quips). Krieg will keep readers chuckling through the hilarious but action-packed showdown, which leaves the door open for a sequel. Ages 9–11.
March 1, 2010
Gr 4-8-This is a clever take on a police procedural. Griff Carver is your typical hard-boiled cop who has seen it all during his time on the forcebut the force just happens to be the middle school hallway patrol. For reasons not immediately clear to readers, he is changing schools and his mother urges him to join band instead of signing up for hall-monitor duty. He can't stay away from the force, though. The need to stick it to the rule breakers is just too great. His first day walking the beat sees him berating the school principal for dropping his straw wrapper on the floor and not picking it up. Clearly he's not out to make friends, especially when he discovers who's behind the group counterfeiting hall passes. He does manage to make reluctant allies, including the fresh-faced rookie of the force and the girl ace reporter of the school newspaper. With the exception of a scene at a video arcade where Griff snaps while under the influence of too much sugar-filled soda and has to be dragged away in a troubling parody of cop rage, Krieg keeps Griff's story light and humorous."Kathleen Meulen Ellison, Sakai Intermediate School, Bainbridge Island, WA"
Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from May 1, 2010
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* A brilliant, hard-nosed, and dedicated cop for being only 13 years old, Griff Carver grimly fights the good fight as a member of his new schools Safety Patrol in this inspired, expertly spun tale. Rampart Middle School may have a shiny reputation, but, as new transfer Griff quickly discovers, its rotten from the principal on down. Even Delane, the patrols captain, is in the back pocket of flashy arch-villain and class-president-candidate Marcus Volger. Picking up allies who see through his flinty exteriorlike ace reporter Verity King, bumbling but educable fellow officer Tommy Rodriguez, and Solomon, a savvy old janitorGriff takes it on the chin more than once but comes out on top in the end, stymied in an effort to nab Volger outright but at least breaking up his counterfeit hall-pass operation in a spectacularly destructive climax. Pitch perfect from start to finish (The donuts tasted like papier-mache, only less sweet and harder to chew) veteran TV writer Kriegs fiction debut will have even the most hardboiled whodunit fans rolling in the aisles. Expect sequels, and hope they come soon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2010
Griffin Carver, new boy at Rampart Middle School, joins the hallway patrol and exposes a fake-hall-pass production ring. Krieg creates a hilarious parody of the hard-boiled detective genre, with three different narrators keeping us on our toes. It all slots together like clockwork, and who could resist a book that includes both the word scofflaw and the expletive "H-E double hockey sticks"?
(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)