Griff Carver, Hallway Patrol
Grade 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 force—but 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, WACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.