The Case of the Cool-Itch Kid Read Online Free Page A

pancake. “I guess we can go home now.”
    “Go home?” Lizzie asked.
    “Go home?” Dawn said.
    She took another bite of her pancake.
    They were as good as Noni’s.
    Definitely.
    The door opened.
    Someone came in with a package.
    “Special mail for Dawn Bosco,” the woman said.
    “Wow,” said Lizzie. “It’s as big as a whale.”
    “I hope it’s food,” said Jill.
    Dawn shook her head. “I think I know.”
    She started to tear open the paper.
    She could see pink polka dots. She could see a note.
DEAR DAWN:
    HERE IS YOUR POLKA DOT DETECTIVE BOX. I PUT SOME CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES INSIDE.
    LOVE,
      NONI
P.S. HOW’S THE HORSEBACK RIDING?
    Dawn looked at Jill. “Horseback riding. I nearly forgot.”
    “Horseback riding starts on Thursday,” said Know-It-All. “It always does.”
    “We’d better not go home,” said Jill.
    “No.” Dawn wiped her mouth. “Besides, I have my detective box now. We might find another mystery to solve.”

A Biography of Patricia Reilly Giff
    Patricia Reilly Giff came from a family of storytellers. She learned to read when she was four and never stopped, delighted with that widening world of story. She read through her classes in her elementary school, St. Pascal Baylon, and through her years at her high school, the Mary Louis Academy. Perhaps that’s why math and science are still so mysterious to her.
    She majored in history and education at Marymount College and then went on to St. John’s University for a master’s degree in history, delighted that she could read her way through the lives of kings and queens, through plagues and wars.
    In 1959, she married James Giff, a New York City detective, who had stories of his own. It was a perfect match because he thought it was fine that she spent hours reading instead of attending to the pots on the stove or the potatoes growing in the closet.
    She spent the next twenty years raising their three children—James, William, and Alice—teaching, first in New York City and then Elmont, Long Island, and attending Hofstra University for a professional diploma in reading.
    But always she wanted to write stories of her own, so her husband built her a small office out of two closets in the kitchen.
    That was the beginning. She wrote about her childhood and her children, she wrote about the children she taught, and now she writes about her grandchildren and what interests them. She visits school and libraries and loves to talk with people who enjoy reading.
    She received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Hofstra University and from Sacred Heart University. Several of her books were chosen as ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Books and ALA-YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. They include The Gift of the Pirate Queen; All the Way Home; Nory Ryan’s Song , a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Honor Book for Fiction; and Newbery Honor books Lily’s Crossing and Pictures of Hollis Woods . Lily’s Crossing was also chosen as a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book. She’s also won the Christopher Award.
    In between, she cares for an indoor garden of almost two hundred plants—and reads, of course.

    Patricia Reilly Giff on a September day in 1937 in St. Albans, New York. The future Polk Street Mysteries author is two years old.

    Patricia Reilly Giff (age four) with her sister, Annie (age two). The picture was taken at Christmastime circa 1939.

    Patricia Reilly Giff on May 1, 1955 (age twenty) with her little poodle, Nikki, who was just eleven weeks old at the time.

    Patricia Reilly Giff fishing on the Delaware River near her vacation home in East Branch, New York, circa 1976. In the background is her dog, Heidi.

    Patricia Reilly Giff with her two sons, Jimmy (left) and Bill (right) circa 1991. Missing from the picture is her daughter, Alice.

    Patricia Reilly Giff with her husband, Jim, visiting an elementary school classroom to talk about her popular Polk Street series. Giff speaks at schools, libraries,