Trouble at the Tangerine

McDunn, Gillian. Trouble at the Tangerine
April 2, 2024 by Bloomsbury Children's Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Simon Hyde's parents love life on the road and are always looking for their next adventure. They both have jobs that can be done remotely, and also have a social media presence called Hydes Go Seek about the family's travels. This means that Simon is always the new kid at school and can't really make lasting friendships, and while he does pretty well, it's tiring. In a leg cast after an incident at his last school, Simon is determined to make his family's move to Rigsby their last. Things don't start out too smoothly at the Tangerine Pines apartment building, since the superintendent, Oscar, gets mad at Simon for propping a door open and also because the family has mail that preceded them. Not only that, but on their very first day, one of the residents has a valuable family necklace stolen during a fire alarm! Ginger, whom Simon had met before the alarm went off, seemed fun and quirky, but is now very upset about the missing necklace. She also has a very cute rescue dog, Bianca, who is expecting puppies. Simon has wanted a dog, but moving and sometimes living in their van, Vincent Van Gogh, makes this impossible. Another neighbor, Amaya, is just Simon's age and suggests that the two investigate the theft so she can record about it for her podcast. She also pet sits, and is always in and out of the building. Investigating helps Simon get to know his neighbors, including Mrs. Kobayashi, who is a retired detective! When he's not investigating, Simon is trying to convince his parents that Rigsby is a great place to be, but his father is itching to move on, and is talking about taking an entire year on the road! Since he has also met Calvin and started to learn how to throw Frisbees with him, Simon really wants to get his parents to stay. When another piece of jewelry goes missing, Simon knows he has to get to the bottom of things, especially since someone seems to be breaking into other apartments and moving things around, even if nothing is being stolen. Will he and Amaya be able to figure things out? 

Strengths: Growing up, I was enthralled by books set in city apartment buildings, because they seemed so exotic! This reminded me a little of Marks' A Soft Place to Land or Graf and Patterson's Minerva Keene's Detective Club, and I loved the descriptions of the apartment building and its environs, even the shiny new building next door that blocked Ginger's view of the park. I'd also love to see more books about children with slightly unusual living arrangements, like Goeble's Alpaca My Bags or Hawes' Big Rig. Simon is a great character, and his attempts to sway his parents into staying in one place are very well thought out. He also gets some good information from Mrs. Kobayashi about talking to his parents. The minor characters are well developed, and Oscar is a fun addition. 
Weaknesses: The mystery of the missing necklace wasn't that strong, but for me, that wasn't really the point of the book! I did want to know more about Amaya's living arrangement, and the building next door to the apartment building.
What I really think: This is much more up beat than When See Becomes Sky (2023), These Unlucky Stars (2021) and Caterpillar Summer (2019),  and even happier than Honestly Elliot (2022), or The Queen Bee and Me (2020). I'd love to see McDunn tackle realistic middle grade problems with more humor and perhaps some mystery, because those are the type of books my students love, and they are hard to find!