Pen­i­na ​“Pinky” Bloom, a fourth grad­er at a Jew­ish day school, con­sid­ers her­self ​“the great­est kid detec­tive in Brook­lyn,” and there are a few mys­ter­ies she needs to solve: Who is putting the Lotus Blos­som Kosher Chi­nese Restau­rant out of busi­ness? Why are they doing it? And who stole the Kid­dush cup and Torah yad from the exhib­it at the Jew­ish Museum?

A cast of sup­port­ing char­ac­ters includes Pinky’s annoy­ing younger broth­er, Avi; Joe, the wait­er at the restau­rant; Madame Olga, the neigh­bor­hood psy­chic; and the cura­tor of the exhib­it at the Jew­ish Museum.

Pinky is a sys­tem­at­ic sleuth, list­ing her sus­pects and fol­low­ing up with care­ful detec­tive work, lead­ing to a suc­cess­ful out­come with all mys­ter­ies neat­ly solved. The sto­ry is quick, mov­ing, and fun­ny. For exam­ple, when Pinky enlists the psy­chic’s help, Madame Olga looks at her crys­tal ball only to state that it’s for tourists — then picks up her com­put­er instead. Black and white draw­ings accom­pa­ny the text.