Howie Bowles, Secret Agent - Hardcover

Banks, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374335001 ISBN 13: 9780374335007

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 1999

Synopsis

How do you make new friends?

It's hard for Howie Bowles when his family moves to a new town -- what if the kids at school don't like him? "Just be yourself" is his mother's advice, but wouldn't it be easier to be somebody else? Howie doesn't plan on making his classmates believe that he's actually a secret agent named Agent Bean Burger, but somehow that's what happens. Soon everyone is interested in him because he's a secret agent, and it's sort of like having friends, except that the other kids still don't know anything about Howie. And then a case comes along that he has to solve: someone's been spitting out their gum in the drinking fountains at school. In short chapters with snappy dialogue and winning pictures, this is a fast-paced story of a likable, worrisome boy -- a boy who finally does solve the case (it's the principal!), so Agent Bean Burger can take a vacation and Howie Bowles can be himself.

About this title

About the Author

Kate Banks's other children's books include And If the Moon Could Talk. She lives in Monaco.

Isaac Millman is also the author/illustrator of Moses Goes to a Concert. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

Grade 2-3-Howie Bowles is the new kid in town and, after a distressing first day at school, he fears he will never fit in. To win the admiration of his classmates, he decides to model himself on a fictional private investigator and becomes Bean Burger, Secret Agent. While Howie finds that his peers do treat him differently, he soon feels trapped by his new persona and comes to the realization that he's better off simply being himself. Beginning chapter books often have short sentences but the start of this one is downright choppy. The style and the action smooth out as the story progresses, though reluctant readers may have given up by then. Still, many children will relate to the trials of moving and/or trying out a new identity and will find the ending comforting. Full-page and spot-art black-and-white cartoon drawings illustrate the volume. A soothing but secondary purchase.
Laura Santoro, Coventry Library, Cleveland Heights, OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Banks's (And If the Moon Could Talk; Spider Spider) slim chapter book introduces eight-year-old Howie, who feels nervous about starting a new school in the middle of his third-grade year. When, after the first day, the boy has trouble making friends, he adopts the identity of Secret Agent Bean Burger (so named for his favorite dinner menu) and things improve. The next day, after his mother drops off his lunch bag with his new name displayed, Secret Agent Bean Burger is summoned over the P.A. system to pick up his lunch, convincing his classmates that he is on assignment. Howie's first big case is to discover who is leaving wads of green bubble gum on the water fountain. Making the solution especially stickyAand far-fetchedAis the sleuth's discovery that the culprit is the principal. Youngsters who have recently made or are facing a move to a new school may well identify with Howie's anxieties, yet his unlikely coping mechanism isn't apt to provide much comfort. Ages 6-8. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Banks (Baboon, 1997, etc.) pens a fast-paced novel about a hero to whom many children will relate: Howie, a real worrier. Starting a new school gives Howie pause, and without actually planning it, he convinces his new classmates that he is secret Agent Bean Burger, sent by the principal to ferret out crimes in the classroom, including ``copying, nail-biting, gum-chewing,'' and more. He ends up with a real mystery to solve: Who is putting gum in the water fountains? The problem with being Agent Bean Burger is that Howie has two new worriesthat he'll be exposed, and whether his classmates like him, or just Agent Bean Burger? Howie learns to be his true, worried self, his teacher is understanding, and his classmates like him just the way he is. This transitional chapter book rolls pleasantly along; it's amusing, with no surprises, and children may find it comforting. (b&w illustrations) (Fiction. 7-9) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374335001
• ISBN 13: 9780374335007
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Millman Isaac
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96