Not an Alphabet Book: The Case of the Missing Cake

Follow Bear from A to Z as he hunts for a cake thief in a hilarious alphabet book crossed with a whodunit.

There has been a terrible crime, Bear tells us. Someone has STOLEN a delicious chocolate cake! Bear sets off to find the culprit, questioning characters and compiling clues from A to Z. Among the suspects: a gingerbread man (G) with a bite out of his head, a kite (K) that may be above the law, and an octopus (O) with grabby tentacles. But — hold on — are those crumbs on Bear’s page? Is that frosting on his face? Looks like our narrator is a little unreliable! And it appears our culprit might be the one that Bear wants readers to suspect the least of all. . . . Author Eoin McLaughlin’s sly, cheeky humor takes the alphabet book to inventive new heights, while best-selling illustrator Marc Boutavant’s smart and striking graphic-style art matches the irreverent tone. Young ABC learners and older fans of funny stories will laugh out loud at Bear’s uproarious “investigation” and his anything-but-usual suspects.

Eoin McLaughlin is the author of several picture books. When he is not writing for children, he works as a copywriter for Channel 4 in the U.K. Born in Ireland, Eoin McLaughlin has lived in Amsterdam and New York, and now lives in London with his wife and their baby.

Marc Boutavant is an award-winning graphic artist, illustrator, and comic-strip creator whose works include the best-selling Around the World with Mouk, now an animated TV series. His picture books include The Great House Hunt and Never Tickle a Tiger, among many others. Born in Bourgogne, France, he now lives in Paris.