The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels

A bit of a mystery, a fun and interesting story, and fun characters. It manages to have murder and suspense without being creepy or very dark. There is a non-binary child which is dealt with in a very gentle way, and I felt the main character's reaction to it was quite sweet and realistic. (Something to the effect of, oh, I didn't realize that was an option, and then moves on with life.) Probably best for middle school+ or advanced late elementary kids. Also, adults like me that enjoy a good "kid's" book.

I love reading to my son. He's eight. He doesn't always want me to read to him - he prefers to read alone. I made him sit with me for the first couple chapters and within a few, he was hooked. It also help to start a conversation about gender, which was really nice. Mostly though, he enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery as we read. It really captured his imagination.

I rated this four stars, because quite honestly as an adult reading this book through the eyes of a middle grades student, might have trouble. The book is cute and entertaining, but a lot of the words are a bit above the recommended age. If you’re looking for a quirky fun book this is it just make sure your, child or students are reading at a fairly high level.

This book was great for my sixth grade reader who is slightly advanced. In recent year, she liked the dork diaries, And seems to love this I will be getting number two shortly! Great story

Shenanigan is a misfit in a family of misfits. In the Swift family, when a baby is born, the family dictionary is consulted for a name. The family honestly believes that the dictionary will give the new baby the appropriate name, and the child will grow to be what its name means. Yes, the definition of its name. Aunt Inheritance is obviously meant to be the family archivist. Just as Shenanigan is expected to cause trouble and always be a problem. Aren't you glad you aren't Cousin Atrocious? Ones with almost normal names, such as Flora and Fauna, are pittied as they aren't expected to make much of a mark in life. What happens if the dictionary gets it wrong? Or what if there's more than one meaning to a name? Could a person turn into something unexpected?In the Swift family, they have family reunions at which they search for the Hoard. The Hoard is the long-lost treasure of their ancestor hidden on the estate. The estate is typical of any other old family property in that it has been added on to, and things have been torn down. Change with time and needs. No one knows just where all the old passageways are or lead to. At this year's reunion, one of the family members is willing to go further than just searching to find the Hoard. And he wants it all for himself. He's not willing to share with the family. Will he go all the way to murder? Find out! Recommended.

This is a great book for young people. The story is engaging and funny.

We read this as a read-aloud and all of us thoroughly enjoyed it! Very well written, excellent characters!

As you’ll easily see from the synopsis, the book is about a family who gets names from a dictionary and then assumes everyone will live up to those names — good or bad. There’s some clever word play, but younger kids will often need a dictionary. Now, here’s the stuff I didn’t notice in other reviews:* Many parents check these reviews for content and trigger warnings, so let’s get those out there first. The book contains violence and murder including dead bodies, but descriptions are certainly not gruesome. What’s more alarming is that none of the characters seem to find the deaths gruesome or disturbing. It’s all very desensitized, but maybe that’s what folks expect from this type of mystery.This book is very LGBTQ+ affirming. There’s a male character who refers to his husband, a child who questions their gender, and an adult who is trans. The strangest thing about this, in this book, is that the plot is all set up by saying that the family names someone and then a person can never break out of that identify. That’s totally unsupported in terms of gender in the story though. Is the audience supposed to accept that Fauna was allowed to transition in gender but didn’t need a name change? Or that Uncle Maelstrom literally takes time to define matriarchy and patriarchy and then say he hopes the next family leader is neither gender and they’ll figure out what to call them? It just doesn't make sense in the novel. The transitional/ gender fluidity theme could even have been carried out better without these additions. I realize this info may affect some buyers, so it should be in an honest review.* At times, the author gets too caught up in her own cleverness and the wordplay overtakes the story. An example of this comes in a very unnecessary and strange prologue to the US edition that basically talks about the differences between British and American spellings. It’s in no way relevant to the story and doesn’t even really affect the books’s editing.* It’s a long read for kids and doesn’t move at a particularly quick pace. The actual sentence structures and word choices often make reading aloud difficult. The pacing is also strange. Chapters are too short to just read one if doing this as a read aloud book, but you could potentially read 2 and literally make no progress in the plot. (I guess on the positive side, even when we didn’t read it for a week, the plot repeated so often the kids could easily remember what had happened.)This isn’t one I’d recommend largely because the troublesome aspects outweigh the fun of the book and could not down early chapter book readers, but the tone is far too young for more advanced readers (say Harry Potter fans, for instance).