The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues by Ellen Raskin

Ellen Raskin is best-known in my world as the author of The Westing Game, a children's mystery novel that I have had great fun with in my life.  I'd never heard of The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, though, so I threw into my library stack on impulse when I saw it at a display at the library. 

It, too, is a fun little book. It presents a series of mysteries with our main character, an enigmatic artist named Dickory Dock. She answers an ad for a part-time job and is soon enveloped in a world of puzzling little quandaries.

It's an interesting book because the themes are pretty dark (theft, assault, etc.) and there's mention of Dickory's hard life living in a tenement with parents who are out of the picture, but it's still a young, young adult novel. The mysteries are sophisticated, but wrap up in nice pretty bows at the end, which I imagine would be quite delightful for a young reader. I did not actually figure out the mystery for one of the stories, so, while we can debate how much of a good solver of mysteries I actually am, I think that it demonstrates that Raskin is taking her readers seriously. 

I don't know if I liked this book as much as I liked The Westing Game, but it sure comes close. I'm going to definitely be picking up a copy of both books for one of my nieces for her Christmas books this year.