Gumshoe
A Graphic Novel
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From the visionary creator of the Sheets trilogy comes a never-before-seen contemporary middle grade graphic novel about a spunky group of girls, set against the backdrop of the Arizona desert. Perfect for fans of Paper Girls and This Was Our Pact.
In the hot, gossipy town of Stony Lonesome, shy eleven-year old Willa interacts with others the only way that feels right to her—the mail. She loves the mail so much that she hopes to become a mail carrier herself one day. But her dreams of delivering birthday cards, thank-you notes, and love letters come crashing down when she’s mistaken for the notorious Two Gum Tilly, a bandit rumored to be stealing mail for as long as folks can recall.
Now an outlaw herself, Willa realizes the only way to clear her name is to bring the real crook to justice. But when a chance encounter introduces her to the Gumshoe Gang, a group of runaways looking to right the wrongs of the letter-looting thief, she finds that human connection might be her only path to freedom. Can Willa clear her name and revive her dreams of postal glory, or has she stamped her last letter . . . forever?
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Eleven-year-old Willa, the star of this standalone graphic novel western by Sheets trilogy creator Thummler, is on the run. While attempting to leave a letter in the mailbox of the local postal worker in which Willa asks for advice on how to become "the best mailwoman in all of Arizona," the tween loses her mettle. The letter carrier, having caught her removing the note from his mailbox, wrongly assumes she's the infamous mail bandit Two Gum Tilly. Upon fleeing, Willa encounters a group of runaways called the Gumshoe Gang who aim to prevent Tilly from stealing mail by following her rumored path and preemptively taking, storing, and redelivering the letters themselves once she leaves town. Though being "not so good at... talk" left Willa feeling out of place back home, she becomes fast friends with the Gumshoe Gang, with whom she gains a new perspective on life, all while running from her postman pursuer and his gum-sniffing cat. In between structured, character-focused panels of the tweens' whirlwind quest, which takes place during an unspecified year, are sepia-toned flashback sequences that chronicle the legend and mystery of Two Gum Tilly. Rhythmic dialogue with a Southwestern twang complements the high-contrast desert color palette of this motley crew's heartening adventure. Characters are depicted with varying body types and skin tones. Ages 8–12.
