2021
WISE Score
A border-straddling island, a 'murdered' dog, and a Prohibition-era gangster conspiracy make for a top-tier middle-grade mystery.
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Gordon Korman is basically the GOAT of middle-grade fiction for a reason. Notorious delivers exactly what he’s known for: a fast-paced, funny mystery that doesn't talk down to kids.
If you have a kid who claims to hate reading, this is a strong candidate to change their mind. It’s got a dead dog, gangsters, and a house that sits in two countries at once. It’s efficient storytelling that respects a kid’s time and intelligence.
Perfect for the 8–12 crowd. It’s sophisticated enough for a middle-schooler but accessible enough for a 3rd grader who’s ready for a real chapter book.
Classic Gordon Korman territory: it features a genuinely weird friendship, a quirky community, and kids solving problems without being obnoxious or overly cynical. The dead dog plot point sounds heavy, but it's handled with a mystery-first, grief-second approach that keeps the tone light.
The setting—Centerlight Island, split between the US and Canada—is a fantastic hook. Using Prohibition-era smuggling history as the backbone for a modern mystery is clever and invites kids to think about how geography and history shape a place.
Extremely safe for the middle-grade audience. No sexual content, gore, or extreme language. The 'danger' is of the suspenseful, mystery-novel variety that 10-year-olds can handle with ease.
It's a great gateway to historical curiosity. It touches on international relations (the border split) and 1920s history while modeling deductive reasoning and the value of looking past a person's (or a dog's) reputation.
Gordon Korman has been writing for kids since he was a kid himself, and it shows in the pacing of Notorious. He knows that the fastest way to lose a 10-year-old reader is to spend three pages describing a tree. Instead, he drops us right into the bizarre geography of Centerlight Island.
The book is a masterclass in building the language comprehension strands of the Reading Rope. By weaving in the history of Prohibition and the mechanics of a dual-national border, Korman builds background knowledge without the kid even realizing they're learning. It’s the ultimate 'stealth education' book.
If your kid is struggling with the decoding part of literacy, Notorious is a fantastic choice for an audiobook or a read-aloud. The plot is driven by dialogue and action, making it easy to follow even if the listener isn't staring at the text. It keeps the 'desire to read' alive by proving that books can be just as engaging as a Netflix mystery series.
For families who have opted out of the Roblox/YouTube cycle, Korman’s books are a great alternative. They offer that same sense of 'anything can happen' adventure but in a controlled, narrative environment that encourages deep focus rather than the frantic scroll of an algorithm.
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