Gradually, the narrator realizes that Winnie is ordinary after all: “Sometimes we all feel the world differently.” Fitzgerald’s message is well intentioned, but in this plotless story, Winnie feels more like an object lesson than a person, which may alienate readers who experience the world in similar ways. Unfortunately, more complex idioms such as “bull in a china shop” may fly over young readers’ heads without further explanation. If she's “monkeying around” on the furniture, everyone joins her on the jungle gym at recess when she’s acting “pretty squirrelly,” the other students go “nuts” with her on an indoor toy obstacle course and so on. In Løvlie’s cheery, colorful, pastel-hued double-page spreads, racially, physically, and ability diverse classmates joyfully join Winnie in activities that regulate her animal-themed antics. Undaunted, her Black-presenting teacher suggests that “maybe Winnie sees and hears and feels the world differently than most of us” and proposes that everyone give Winnie’s “world” a whirl.

She howls “like a hyena” at circle time, kicks “like a kangaroo” at storytime, and chomps “like a piranha” on another student’s arm at lunch. Winnie, a White redheaded girl, is “no ordinary kid,” opines the narrator, an unnamed and unidentified child in Winnie’s class. Inspired by true events described in a fascinating author’s note, The Gallery is a 1920s caper told with humor and spunk that readers today will love.A new student’s unusual behavior bewilders her classmates. Can Martha follow the clues, decipher the code, and solve the mystery of what’s really going on with Rose Sewell? But in a house filled with secrets, nothing is quite what it seems, and no one is who they say.

The other servants say Rose is crazy, but scrappy, strong-willed Martha thinks there’s more to the story-and that the paintings in the Sewell’s gallery contain a hidden message detailing the truth. But, despite the Gatsby-like parties and trimmings of success, she suspects something might be deeply wrong in the household-specifically with Rose Sewell, the formerly vivacious lady of the house who now refuses to leave her room. It's 1929, and twelve-year-old Martha has no choice but to work as a maid in the New York City mansion of the wealthy Sewell family. Synopsis: A riveting historical art mystery for fans of Chasing Vermeer and The Westing Game, set in the Roaring Twenties!

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