Colin Fisher

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

SOLVING CRIME, ONE FACIAL EXPRESSION AT A TIME

Colin Fischer cannot stand to be touched. He does not like the color blue. He needs index cards to recognize facial expressions.

But when a gun is found in the school cafeteria, interrupting a female classmate's birthday celebration, Colin is the only for the investigation. It's up to him to prove that Wayne Connelly, the school bully and Colin's frequent tormenter, didn't bring the gun to school. After all, Wayne didn't have frosting on his hands, and there was white chocolate frosting found on the grip of the smoking gun...

Colin Fischer is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, and his story--as told by the screenwriters of X-Men: First Class and Thor --is perfect for readers who have graduated from Encyclopedia Brown and who are ready to consider the greatest mystery of all: what other people are thinking and feeling.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

The screenwriting team behind X-Men: First Class and Thor make their YA debut with the story of a teenager with Asperger's syndrome solving a crime, a premise that can't help evoking Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Kids constantly target high school freshman Colin, who struggles to understand their facial expressions or jokes, and who sometimes barks when upset. When a gun goes off in the school cafeteria, Colin uses his considerable observational skills and powers of logic to prove that Wayne, a bully who put Colin's head in the toilet on the first day of school, wasn't responsible (when an incredulous Wayne asks Colin why he is helping, Colin simply replies, "You're innocent"). Through journal entries that begin each chapter and footnotes about everything from genetic chimerism to false dichotomies, readers get a strong sense of how Colin's brain works. Beyond Colin and his parents, though, the other characters are somewhat flat. Even so, readers will be drawn into the mystery and intrigued by Colin's vision of the world. Ages 12-up. Agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Endeavor. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 5 Up-Colin Fischer, 14, has Asperger's syndrome. He is highly intelligent, but incapable of reading social cues and struggles to navigate everyday situations. When he enters high school, he faces bullies, class clowns, cliques, and a mystery: Who brought the gun to school that went off in the cafeteria? He soon becomes convinced that the bully, Wayne, who is temporarily suspended, is not guilty. As he works to exonerate Wayne, everyone wonders why he would help someone who dunked him in the toilet on the first day of school. For Colin, it is not a matter of helping the bully, but of making sure that the truth comes out. He eventually proves Wayne is innocent and in the process makes a new friend. Each chapter starts out with an excerpt from Colin's diary, giving facts about Asperger's, a clever device to avoid didactic writing. Colin's family interactions, including squabbles with his younger brother, who resents his sibling's special needs, render him sympathetic. Overall, this book succeeds in making Colin a believable character, deeply rooted in his disability, but always a person first.-Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

The robotic nature of 14-year-old Colin's severe Asperger's syndrome has made him a bit of an outcast at school. He uses a set of flash cards to help identify people's facial emotions. He keeps a journal filled with people's reactions, so that he may better elicit them in the future. And he is unintentionally blunt. (To a friend he hasn't seen for months: Your breasts got bigger. ) It is precisely these qualities that make him the ideal witness to a shocking event: a gun going off in the middle of the cafeteria. With unparalleled powers of observation and deduction Sherlock Holmes is his hero Colin examines the facts until he is forced, by sheer logic, to come to the defense of the accused Wayne, a bully who has long tortured Colin. Miller and Stentz keep the page plenty busy, setting off each emotion that Colin identifies in a larger font ( MALICE, HESITATION ) and including handwritten scraps from Colin's journal. Happily, they succeed where it counts the most crafting the mechanical Colin into a sympathetic and dynamic character.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

After a gun goes off in the cafeteria, fourteen-year-old Colin Fischer is convinced the cops suspect the wrong guy and is determined to figure out who really brought the gun to school; having Asperger's proves both help and hindrance to the young detective. Like Siobhan Dowd's London Eye Mystery (rev. 5/08) and Francisco X. Stork's Marcelo in the Real World (rev. 3/09), this novel features a boy whose methodical brain makes him a natural at puzzle-solving but who, in order to crack the case, must venture far outside his comfort zone. The book's most obvious comparison is to Mark Haddon's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, but unlike Haddon, who claims not to be an expert on Asperger's (the novel never uses the term), authors Miller and Stentz do have experience with the disorder, and their portrayal of differently wired Colin feels genuine and authentic. Their background in writing for TV and film results in snappy dialogue -- sharp, funny, and economically telling of character. Readers will appreciate the omniscient narration that covers Colin's point of view, the notebook entries in his voice, and the footnotes that describe the kind of details that fascinate him. Secondary characters aren't as well rounded, especially the story's villain, and the conclusion's hint at a future, tragic run-in with said villain is both frustrating and unnecessary. Still, readers will find much to like in this engaging and humorous mystery. jennifer m. brabander (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

The subgenre combining sleuthing with characters who have Asperger syndrome gets a new entry offering humor and interesting historical and scientific connections--but the narrative viewpoint drifts unsettlingly. Colin begins high school with a cheat sheet to decipher facial expressions, but he no longer uses a "shadow," an adult to help him navigate the social landscape. The hallway's crowded (Colin hates touch); the bathroom sign is blue (a color he dislikes); and Wayne (who's been bullying him for years) dunks his head in the toilet. As the plot unfolds--bullying, Colin's arithmetical approach to basketball, birthday cake and a real gun going off in the cafeteria--Colin tracks everything in his notebook (facts only). Many entries end with this plan: "Investigate." As a sleuth, Colin's sharply observant, his discoveries impressive. The gun mystery doesn't frighten him: "Wayne Connelly is innocent, and I will prove it. The game is afoot." Disconcertingly, the narrative voice conveys some of Colin's thoughts but also some of his parents' and Wayne's; sometimes it aligns itself with Colin's perspective, sometimes it describes him from the outside ("her irony as lost on Colin as it usually was"). Omniscience is one thing, authorial convenience another. This mobile narrative allegiance makes it hard to pinpoint whether the Asperger humor is from Colin or about him. Entertaining, but confused about its point of view. (Fiction. 11-16)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.