April 15, 2025 by Storytide (HarperCollins)
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
After visiting her grandmother, Meme, in New Orleans, Opal returns to her home in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago before the start of 7th grade. Her father is the superintendent of their apartment building, the Crescent, which is undergoing extensive renovations, and her mother is an app developer. While she was gone, Opal heard from her friend, Madison Ling, that there were odd noises behind the bathroom in Madison's apartment. Opal has been spending the last three years solving small mysteries for friends and family, so she jumps right on the case. There are plenty of things going on at the Crescent; the owner, Mr. Vaughn, is trying to hold developers who want to tear the building down at bay, the contractor, Mr. Devlin (whom Mr. Watson found through a pop-up ad on the internet), is dragging his heels on work, and there is a woman named Mrs. Carlowe who is hanging around the building and seems to be up to no good. When Opal's school, L. Hansberry Middle School, has a meet and greet the week before school, Opal attends. Her teacher, Ms. Downey, tells the students that they will be partnered up to work on a video project on a historical event that happened in the 20th century. Opal gets off to a rocky start with new student Ivy, but the two start to investigate the Great Migration. It has some ties to the Crescent, and with everything going on in the building, Opal's investigation turns up some surprising information. Even though she has one set of blueprints from 1965, she finds another from 1905 that seems to hide a secret. Will she be able to contact the right people in order to save her beloved building from being torn down?
Strengths: We learn early on that Opal uses a cane and has some vision issues, and it's great that while this is discussed, it isn't the main focus of the story. We learn quite some way into the story that she suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, and needs some accomodations in low light, and also has taken Orientation and Mobility classes. The Crescent is a great setting, and there is a lot of really interesting Chicago history that is discussed, including Robert Abbott and The Chicago Defender newspaper. The Great Migration is a great topic for middle school students to research, especially those who live in Chicago. I liked Ivy and Opal's somewhat fraught relationship, as well as the great support system and friends that Opal has.
Weaknesses: This almost felt like the second book in a series, and there were a lot of characters to keep straight. There were also some things that didn't seem like they would happen in real life. The father gets a contractor from a pop up ad? No wonder he was sketchy. Also, I can't see a teacher assigning a project before the first day of school; not all students are able to come to meet and greets.
What I really think: This reminded me a bit of Winston's Wednesday and Woof series, where Wednesday, who deals with arthritis, and her dog (Opal has a cat, Bebe) solve similar mysteries, or of McDunn's Trouble at the Tangerine, where characters are also trying to save a historic apartment building.
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