Title: The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm
Author: Nancy Farmer
Publish Date: 1994

Batten down the hatches, Abby's about to gush.

The setting is Zimbabwe in the 22nd century. Tendai and his siblings, the children of the influential General Matsika, live a sheltered life just outside Harare — until they sneak out into the city, and are promptly kidnapped. When military might fails to locate them, their parents enlist outside help from the Ear, the Eye and the Arm Detective Agency, consisting of the elephant-eared Ear, the eagle-eyed Eye, and the gangling Arm. Wacky yet suspenseful hijinks ensue.

And oh, my God, how do I love this book? Enumeration follows:

1. The plot doesn't miss a beat. The kids stumble into one trap after another, always escaping just before the hapless detectives can catch up to them — and none of their predicaments are gimmicky. The dangers they face are not to be defeated with simple derring-do (even if a thirteen-year-old was capable of doing much derring); the problems presented are not easily solved, and their adversaries are not weak cardboard standups. Which leads me to Thing Two:

2. The characters are fantastic, every last one of them. Kuda, the four-year-old, throws tantrums at all the least opportune moments. Ear, Eye and Arm are both gifted and crippled by their weird sensitivities. Knife, a thug in the employ of the redoubtable She-Elephant, has an irascible grandmother whom he worships, and the She-Elephant herself has hidden complexities. These people pass all the tests: the 3-D test, the verisimilitude test, even the Bechdel test.

(Also, since I've been grappling lately with fandom's skanky race issues, I really appreciate the way most of the characters are not white, and that's that. See, people, you don't have to be writing Issue Fiction to do it.)

3. The world-building is solid. Without going into tedious and esoteric detail, Farmer makes it clear that a) this is the future, b) this is Africa, and c) it's complicated. There's an actual world in here, not just a series of cute backdrops and props. And the language thing, that I was complaining about before? Farmer does it right.

4. Shades of gray. This ties back into 2, in that none of the characters are saints nor yet villains of the deepest dye (with the possible exception of the Big Boss, and even then it's not driven home with a sledgehammer). The ending, while tying up all loose ends in a manner suitable for young readers, neither completely redeems the bad guys, nor exacts bloody retribution, nor lets the heroes off without scathe.

And lastly, the writing is good — not just readable, not just workmanlike, but genuinely good, well-crafted prose. (A tad simple, but this is a kids' book — and it's simple, not dumbed down.)

In short, everyone should read this. I think it's seriously the best thing I've read in years.

Rating: 10/10