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A review by mrskatiefitz
Who Done It? by Jon Scieszka
3.0
More than 80 young adult authors have been assembled at a party given by notorious editor Herman Q. Mildew, at which each one of them is asked to provide an alibi for Mildew’s murder. Organized by Jon Scieszka, this unique collaboration is a fundraiser for 826nyc, a non-profit literacy organization founded by Dave Eggers. Included in the collection are beloved YA authors such as David Levithan, John Green, Todd Strasser, Lemony Snicket, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle, and Libba Bray, as well as many other authors whose names might not yet be familiar to all readers.
I checked this book out of the library primarily because I thought it would be an easy way to get exposed to the writing style of lots of YA authors at once, without necessarily having to track down a full-length novel by each one of them. Unfortunately, a lot of the alibis written for this collection wound up being very similar, and only a handful of authors truly stood out from their peers. I suspect that Scieszka provided each author with certain details of the supposed murder, because many of those recurred in each alibi, and many of them were used in the exact same way. It was interesting to see how authors would support or contradict each other’s testimony, but by the halfway point in the book, I was running out of steam because I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again.
Ultimately, I think this book is mainly an inside joke for the authors themselves, and for young writers involved with 826nyc. There are certainly some references that savvy YA readers will pick up on, such as John Green’s mention of his “puff”, and some authors that I’d never really heard of whose names I will now remember, but overall, I felt like this book was not really for general audiences. It seemed to focus mostly on a specific circle of YA authors, all of whom know each other, rather than on a teen audience. I wouldn’t be surprised if most kids who pick up this book don’t finish it, or don’t really get it. For the rare reader who really likes this project, there is also The Exquisite Corpse, a similar 2010 project also spearheaded by Jon Scieszka.
I checked this book out of the library primarily because I thought it would be an easy way to get exposed to the writing style of lots of YA authors at once, without necessarily having to track down a full-length novel by each one of them. Unfortunately, a lot of the alibis written for this collection wound up being very similar, and only a handful of authors truly stood out from their peers. I suspect that Scieszka provided each author with certain details of the supposed murder, because many of those recurred in each alibi, and many of them were used in the exact same way. It was interesting to see how authors would support or contradict each other’s testimony, but by the halfway point in the book, I was running out of steam because I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again.
Ultimately, I think this book is mainly an inside joke for the authors themselves, and for young writers involved with 826nyc. There are certainly some references that savvy YA readers will pick up on, such as John Green’s mention of his “puff”, and some authors that I’d never really heard of whose names I will now remember, but overall, I felt like this book was not really for general audiences. It seemed to focus mostly on a specific circle of YA authors, all of whom know each other, rather than on a teen audience. I wouldn’t be surprised if most kids who pick up this book don’t finish it, or don’t really get it. For the rare reader who really likes this project, there is also The Exquisite Corpse, a similar 2010 project also spearheaded by Jon Scieszka.