As an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed this children's book and recommend it for anyone with children who have very active imaginations.

Kids love to read about how adept they are at outwitting their parents. This novel cleverly twists the trope ever so slightly by making it clear that it takes a mastermind who will then coach his peers in solving all of their problems with their parents. Dewey Fairchild has a solution for everything! Except, maybe, his parents' plans to move the family to another state.

It's funny, if bordering on absurd in its covert-operations moments. Kids will eat it up.

DEWEY FAIRCHILD, PARENT PROBLEM SOLVER by Lorri Horn tells the story of a boy who gives parenting advice to his friends.

In this humorous intermediate novel, Dewey spends his time solving the parent problems of his peers. However, he soon finds that it’s not as easy to solve his own parent problems.

Librarians will find this book popular with fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Spy School, and child detective stories.

Published by Amberjack Publishing on August 8, 2017. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

What a novel idea for a story! Dewey, the main character, helps his friends and classmates to solve parental problems. You know, parents can be so embarrassing! Cute book that I believe young readers can relate to.

I must have misread the category or description of this title. Inside of two pages, I realized this was aimed at an audience FAR younger than myself and I quit!

Contemporary Fiction
9-12
Wherever there are parents, there will be problems for their kids. Bedtime too early; overprotective mums, embarrassing dads – whatever the issue, Dewey Fairchild can help. When Dewey finds success solving his friend Seraphina’s problem, he opens a business helping his Grade 5 classmates with a gamut of grown-up griefs. Things get so busy he recruits his neighbour and long-time (really, really long-time!) family friend Clara to help as an assistant. She is organized and bakes the best cookies, which she shares generously with clients and staff alike. Young readers will laugh out loud at the problems Dewey gets to solve, and enjoy his research-intensive approach to figuring out how to resolve matters for his friends. But what will Dewey do when he is blindsided by his own Dad? This book is a lot of fun, well written, and has the right amount of gross (a nose-picking dad) to appeal to this age group. Dewey’s friends are an appropriate ethnic mix for today’s world, though I would not consider this a multicultural book. The dialogue is authentic, and the plot generally realistic, though a medical solution for one problem seems a bit of a stretch for the adult reader. The tech is up to date, with cellphones, picture sharing, and GPS all playing key roles in the kids’ adventures. An excellent choice for readers ready to move up from Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a sequel! My thanks to Amberjack Publishing for the advance reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34028307

Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver

by Lorri Horn

Amberjack Publishing



Children's Fiction , Middle Grade

Pub Date 08 Aug 2017

I am reviewing a copy of Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver through Amberjack Publishing and Netgalley:

Dewey Fairchild is so good with solving parent problems that he's built a career out of it. He even has a secretary Clara, she's a great alibi and an even better baker.

Dewey has no problem when it comes to helping others with their problems, but when he learns that his Father is moving them to Alaska he finds a problem that will be difficult if not impossible to solve. Will he be able to solve the problem, or accept the move?

Find out in Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver:

Five out of five stars

Happy Reading!

Watch out, the heir to Encyclopedia Brown is here, with some clever updates in a thoroughly modern read for kids aged 9-12. Dewey solves problems for his kid peers who need help with various parental issues, most variations on contemporaneous issues such as Helicopter Parenting, Parents Are Disgusting Too Parenting, and Parents Make Mistakes Parenting. Dewey solves those cases with believable cleverness and aplomb and his relationship with his assistant and genius baker Clara Cottonwood, a sort of Mrs. Hudson/Dr. Watson composite character, is a hoot. But when it comes to his own family issues, Dewey's icky relationship with his mother is distracting (they frequently share a bed, and ""pillow talk," including intimate discussions about her marital issues with his father, who is treated like an ignorant bumbler.) Some of Dewey's friends deserve more of a role (just describing their skin tones and hair color is not adding real diversity) and Dewey himself could be fleshed out as a believable eleven year old boy. But his Can Do entrepreneurial attitude is a winning premise, and hopefully the next book will be too.

I enjoyed this book very much. I am wondering if there will be illustrations, but did not translate into my galley. Kids will enjoy this story of "parent problems" which all kids can relate to.

Clever children solve all those annoying things parents do. Clinging, germaphobia, belching! You know all those terrible things parents do to their poor defenseless children. Well, Dewey and his clever band of detectives can come to the rescue and do so armed with cookies and milk!

Imagine a cross between Encyclopedia Brown and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. That's right, a young boy with detective abilities who also happens to be good at "curing" problem parents. Dewey handles issues ranging from germaphobic mothers to fathers that belch (and worse) in public. With the help of his secretary Clara and her dog Wolfgang von Fluff Bucket, young Mr. Fairchild finds cures for overprotective mothers, fathers who won't stop playing pranks, and other dilemmas brought to him by kids from all over town. Sometimes he even enlists the assistance of his friends in gathering information or find the right approach for clients to break their parents of all these bad habits. As he puts it, "Desperate mothers called for desperate measures."

Each situation is handled successfully and readers will be amused by the solutions to the problems. Scenes like the joker dad sucking his thumb in shock over being pranked himself will have readers laughing out loud. But what will really win everyone over is the fact that Dewey has a parent problem of his own and doesn't know how to solve it. It proves that no one is perfect and that we can all use some help from our friends. Seraphina and Colin's attempts at undercover work in the dental office of Dewey's father are hilarious and show how far true friends will go to help each other.

This book is appealing on many levels. There are the funny parent problems and the even funnier things Dewey has the kids do to break those parental habits. Readers who like secret hideouts or clubhouses will love Dewey's office and the way clients enter and exit. For those who enjoy spies and detectives, there are the stakeouts, message drops, and using Wolfie to smuggle tape recorders. And there is plenty of word play and puns. Looking over the file of the burping father, Dewey finds that he also picks his nose in public, and "had to admit, having a public nose picker for a father pretty much nosed ahead of other people's problems." He tells his secretary, "Get it, Clara!? I'm picking her case first!" Go ahead and groan, but it is funny.

Perfect for middle grade readers who enjoy humorous stories involving parents, friends, and lots of cookies.

What an enjoyable and funny book. Believe me, I belly laughed more times than I could count. In fact, sometimes when I think about the book, I laugh out loud. The humor in this book is at times cheesy, but all ages will love it. Dewey is such a lovable character. He reminds me of Nate the Great because of his seriousness and how he handles his cases. Children will really like this book because it is relatable and has situations that they will be familiar to them. My favorite character, besides Dewey, is Clara. She is Dewey’s assistant and the book would not be the same without her. Her cookies are so very important to the story and the fact that treats the children with respect will make her a reader's favorite too. Readers fall instantly fall in love with her. The ending of the book is open so there could be a sequel. I know this will be a favorite “pick” of your readers.

Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver would be a perfect read aloud for any classroom. In fact, it is on my list to share with my 6th graders at the beginning of next year. The class could become “Problem Solvers” by helping others with issues they have with their parents. The teacher could develop “problems” or the students can make their own. They can be solved by committee or by individual problem solvers. You could even expand to problems with siblings, pets, neighbors, other students…. Classes could read both Nate the Great and Dewey Fairchild to compare and contrast: technology, methods, success… Activities could be expanded into cooking. There are so many different cookies mentioned in the story. The class could make cookies and then graph favorites, write reviews, practice descriptive writing, invent new recipes, and study cooking measurements,

Holy tarter sauce, you will love this book.

A delightful little book about a friendly, helpful boy who corrals his friends to help him solve other children's problems with their parents from an OCD mother to an embarrassing father. Except... Dewey finds out someone who needs help a lot closer to home... himself!

As this is a children's book, for a much younger audience, the characters were portrayed simply, relying heavily on small details. I was slightly confused about Clara's age, but, as a child, Dewey could hardly be expected to know it, although the 'birthday party' list could help you out if you were willing to sit and count them.

A delightful book that will appeal to young minds. Fun, with a little detective work and lots of biscuits to keep everything sweet.