This book is for all those fans of graphology, the study of handwriting. If you have one in your life, Signed by Zelda is the book. Lucy, the female protagonist of the story, is nearly obsessed with handwriting. She gathers handwriting samples wherever she goes. She looks up samples of famous signatures on the internet. She knows how to tell if a signature is a forgery. She even knows how to forge signatures herself, but she’s still working on being able to replicate John Hancock’s signature.

However, the book is only partly about Lucy and her interest in graphology. It’s also about Nicky, the boy who lives in the apartment above Lucy’s and is always in time-out, sent there by his shouting and uncaring dad. (Mom absconded to India.) And it’s about Pigeon, a talking, pie-eating pigeon, and Grandma Zelda, who’s Nicky’s sometimes forgetful but excellent pie-making grandmother. Grandma Zelda’s specialty is Zeldaberry pies (recipe in the back of the book).

When Grandma Zelda disappears, Nicky, Lucy and Pigeon band together to find her. This final third of the book is both the best and the weakest part of the story. It’s best because we finally get to see the three friends working together to solve a problem, the disappearance of Grandma Zelda. But it’s the weakest because Nicky’s dad, the person responsible for Grandma’s vanishing, was just too bad for his eventual “redemption” to be believable. He’s bad, bad, bad, all through the book; then he apologizes and everything is fine. (Not a spoiler. It’s pretty obvious throughout the book who the bad guy is and what his nefarious plan is.)

Signed by Zelda is quirky, sort of a stretch on the believability scale, and a delight for anyone who’s a fan of handwriting analysis–or pigeons. Lucy even has rules, called LUCY’S WRITING RULES:

LWR #1: Watch your back around paper stabbers.
LWR #2: Confused people have confused writing.
LWR #3: Real friends write with real letters.
LWR #4: You are your I.
LWR #5: Every signature has a secret.

Context is everything, and you would probably have to read the book to get the full significance of Lucy’s Writing Rules. I just wonder what Lucy would make of my signature?

More steam-punk, time travel, kids-save-the-world with a dose of zombies, pirates, and intrepid explorers thrown in for good measure. Shake it all together, and you have an adventure story that answers the eternal question: “Should you be afraid of dark closets and basements and monsters under the bed at night?” (The answer, of course, is a resounding “YES!”)

Tommy is a nineteenth century Dickensian London street urchin who is recruited to join the Explorers’ Society, a group of men devoted to exploring portals to other worlds. Jezebel Lemon is a twenty-first century schoolgirl who lives in a New York apartment with her dad, an artist. When Tommy and Jez become partners, they have to find a way to save the world from the un-dead, Dead Gentleman.

I liked the friendship aspect of this story. What does it take to make people friends?What if a friend betrays you? What do friends do to balance each other and compensate for the other’s weaknesses? Tommy is a bit rash, rushing in where others fear to tread; Jez is more cautious, but she approaches bold and daring by the end of the novel. Then there’s also Bernard, another friend and ally who’s super-cautious, but loyal. The friends complement one another.

I didn’t much like the villains of the piece, not that you’re supposed to like villains. The Dead Gentleman and his henchman Macheath are a little too nefarious and mustache-twirling to be believed. However, each to his own villains, I suppose.

For middle grade steam-punk adventure fans, The Dead Gentleman is a solid entry in the genre. Recommended on the back cover by Pseudonymous Bosch.