Detective Gordon: The First Case

An award-winning illustrated detective story set in a friendly forest and first in the acclaimed series for beginning readers.

Detective Gordon – a mystery-solving toad who loves cake – has his very first case. Someone’s stealing nuts from the forest, and it’s up to Detective Gordon to catch the thief! Unfortunately, solving this crime means standing in the snow and waiting for a long time... If only he had an assistant – someone small, fast, and clever – to help solve this terrible case. Then Detective Gordon would be able to go back to doing what he’s best at: thinking, eating cakes, drinking tea, and stamping important papers.

A perfect first chapter book for children aged five and up by one of Sweden’s top children’s writers. This much-loved junior fiction series is illustrated in full colour throughout and packed full of character and humour. Winner of multiple awards and accolades, Detective Gordon is a fun whodunnit mystery series to read alone or aloud.

Translated from the Swedish edition by Julia Marshall.

Read all the Detective Gordon series:
Detective Gordon: A Complicated Case
Detective Gordon: A Case in Any Case
Detective Gordon: A Case for Buffy

ALA-CBC Reading Beyond Kirkus Best Middle-Grade Books of the Year Horn Book Best Books of the Year Booklist Editor's Choice ALA Notable Children's Books Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the 21st Century Booklist Top 10 Translated Books for Youth Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choices Booklist Top 10 Crime Fiction for Youth ACL Distinguished Book

“"Written in the style of a classic noir, but with plenty of humor and silliness, Nilsson's novel opens with a squirrel running to the police station on a quiet snowy nightone of his caches of nuts has been stolen. As Detective Gordon, a toad, investigates, he catches a hungry baby mouse stealing a single nut and takes her in, names her Buffy, and gives her a job as his assistant. Gordon and Buffy make a formidable odd couple: Gordon prefers to snack on cakes and drink warm milk in his office, while Buffy takes to police work eagerly and helps solve the crime rather ingeniously. Nilsson fills the story with friendly banter and dry wit that call to mind Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad books ('Police work goes on all hours of day and night, but according to the type of cake you know what time it is,' Gordon tells Buffy, explaining the finer points of being a police officer), and Spee's softly colored illustrations illuminate the tiny, cozy details of the forest creatures' world."Publishers Weekly Online”

“… full of warm humor and wisdom… with a feather-light touch” -- Best Books of 2015, Horn Book
“KLA-DUNK! Another winner.” -- Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews
“a must-have for chapter book collections” -- Starred Review, School Library Journal

Ulf Nilsson is a celebrated children’s writer in Sweden. He has written more than 20 books for all ages, including All the Dear Little Animals (Gecko Press). He is the winner of the August Award and the American Batchelder Award. He wrote the 'Detective Gordon' junior fiction series, published to international acclaim by Gecko Press.

Gitte Spee graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, a renowned academy of fine art and design in the Netherlands. She now works in Amsterdam as a children’s book illustrator.

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