The Spaghetti Detectives

by Andreas Steinhöfel

  About the Author

  ANDREAS STEINHÖFEL is an award-winning German writer whose first book, the YA novel Dirk und Ich, was published when he was still at college. In addition to writing books for young readers, Andreas works as a translator, writes for TV and radio, and edits graphic novels. He lives in Berlin. The Spaghetti Detectives was awarded the prestigious Jungen Pris in Germany; it is Andreas’s first novel to be published in English.

  Copyright

  First published in Germany as Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten by Carlsen Verlag GmbH, Hamburg.

  Original text copyright © 2008 by Carlsen Verlag GmbH, Hamburg

  English translation copyright © 2010 by Chantal Wright

  Cover art by Adam Record

  Cover Design by Whitney Lyle

  All rights reserved. Published by Chicken House, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.,

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  www.scholastic.com

  First published in English in the United Kingdom in 2010 as The Pasta Detectives by Chicken House, 2 Palmer Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1DS.

  www.doublecluck.com

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Steinhöfel, Andreas.

  [Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten. English]

  The spaghetti detectives / by Andreas Steinhöfel; [translation by Chantal Wright].

  —1st American ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Living with his mother in a Berlin apartment house, Rico, a young boy with ADHD, enjoys playing detective games, but when his friend Oscar suddenly disappears, possibly taken by a serial kidnapper, Rico determines to use his skills to find his friend.

  ISBN 978-0-545-28975-7

  [1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder—Fiction. 3. Single-parent families—Fiction. 4. Apartment houses—Fiction. 5. Friendship—Fiction. 6. Berlin (Germany)—Fiction. 7. Germany—Fiction.] I. Wright, Chantal. II. Title.

  PZ7.S82635Sp 2011

  First American edition, July 2011

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  e-ISBN: 978-0-545-38922-8