“This send-up of the Nancy Drew mysteries by Kincaid first appeared as a 1980 New Yorker story about a gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first book’s publication. Here, Kincaid’s piece is recast as a picture book with dramatic artwork by Cortés. . . Detailed, almost photographically realistic portraits of girls and partygoers by Cortés, shown against marble architectural backdrops that suggest the New York Public Library, engage throughout . . . A gem.”
—Publisher’s Weekly


“I loved Party. It’s a beautiful book right in the tradition of Ezra Jack Keats.”
—Ta-Nehisi Coates
Author of The Water Dancer, Between the World and Me, and Marvel’s Black Panther


“The book’s effervescent pictures, and its playful, secretive ending, will have young readers paging through it again and again, constructing stories and observations of their own.”
—Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine


“Each girl is so unique and amiable that readers will be drawn into the mystery before they know it, desperately searching for clues. Cortés’s expressive paintings help to show the characters’ personalities and the setting, providing some hidden hints to readers . . . A charming book about character and suspense that will be intriguing to many young mystery readers.”
—School Library Journal


“Party has layers. It functions as a subtle message about what it means to witness horror to such a degree that we lose our language for it; it is a quiet story about coming of age, suddenly, as a young black girl because of what the world shows us... It is one of those books that may seem silly, even boring, as a child, and may seem the same as an adult, until you explore it a bit deeper, and find something unsettling and quietly, darkly transformative in the music of those silences.”
—Literary Hub


“This story by acclaimed author Kincaid gets new life in this picture book with lush, glowingly realistic illustrations . . . The artwork is gorgeous and the feeling of being a kid who’s a little too short to see what’s happening will likely resonate with the target audience.”
—Booklist


“Party • A Mystery is a wonderfully bizarre Nancy Drew-inspired story of three girls at a very fancy party who witness something... strange. Is Party a ROMP, ripe for the sleuthin’? Is it an argument for the power of uncertainty and the need to ask questions, even when they don’t have answers? Is it BOTH? A grownup might describe this book as surreal. A kid wouldn’t need to.”
—Shawn, Elliott Bay Books