“All right, let’ get the boring stuff out of the way.”

From Stephan Pastis’ Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.

Young Timmy Failure is a private detective that works out of his mother’s closet. Along with his pet and business partner Total the polar bear, Timmy runs Total Failure, Inc. for anyone that needs a mystery solved. Timmy often borrows his mom’s Segway (without exactly telling her) to get around to cases and clients, but when Timmy comes out of a client’s house, he finds the Segway has been stolen. In an attempt to get Timmy to pay attention in class, Timmy’s teacher, Old Man Crocus, seats him next to the studious Rollo (who Timmy considers his idiotic-for-studying best friend). Along with Rollo, Timmy is also grouped with Molly, and a girl Timmy hates to acknowledge: Corrina Corrina. While Timmy has some friends, like Dondi the yard monitor at school and Flo the biker librarian, Corrina is his arch enemy because she also runs a detective agency. While he searches for his mom’s stolen Segway, Timmy has to deal with all sorts of other problems like a move, difficult investigations, and his mom’s new boyfriend. Cases begin to pile up with no clear answers, especially in connection to the Segway, but when Molly hires Timmy to find her missing shoes, he suspects she might actually be a master thief. However, many mistakes are made and they seem to land Timmy in more and more trouble, but as a Failure, he never gives up.

Similar to Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Pastis’ book is part journal, part picture book and all crazy adventure. The real fun in the story comes from Timmy’s high opinion of his detective abilities which the reader can see might be misguided. Mistakes Were Made is a funny, quick read that will humor readers of all ages.