This is exactly what solid middle-grade fiction should be: a mystery that keeps kids engaged, characters worth caring about, and themes that land without lecturing. Sarah Weeks (who wrote the excellent So B. It) knows how to balance quirk with heart.

The setup is genuinely fun—a recipe left to a cat!—and the execution delivers on the promise. It's not going to change anyone's life, but it's the kind of book kids actually finish and remember fondly. The 4.6 Amazon rating and enthusiastic kid reviews back this up.

In a world of middle-grade books that try too hard to be edgy or relevant, Pie is refreshingly timeless. It's about pie, cats, small-town dynamics, and figuring out what actually matters. Sometimes that's exactly what you need.