- Graphic Novels
- Ages 8–12
- Mystery
The Misfits: A Copycat Conundrum
Book 2 in The MisfitsView the full series
The RASCH misfits return, tangling a run of art thefts and mysterious earthquakes with a century-old shipwreck, and a secret buried in classmate Zeke's family tree.
- Best for8–12
- FormatGraphic
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The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Comedic
- Conversational
Tone
- Funny
- Exciting
- Adventurous
- Suspenseful
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Olive and her fellow misfits are back on the case, this time working for NOCK (No One Can Know), a shadowy agency baffled by a run of targeted earthquakes across San Francisco that shake priceless art loose for thieves. When classmate Zeke starts receiving threatening notes tied to a school genealogy project, the clues lead to his great-great-uncle, a missing shipment of gold and Chinese antiquities, and a hidden room deep inside the castle. As the team races between museums and secret passages, they discover the modern heists and the long-lost shipwreck are two ends of the same mystery. Lisa Yee's second Misfits adventure is faster and twistier than the first, with Dan Santat's illustrations powering a caper that rewards readers who love piecing clues together alongside a crew that only works because none of them fit in anywhere else.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
A middle-grade mystery for 8-12s reading alone, and a shared read from around 7. The plotting is a notch more complex than book one, but the peril stays light and the humour keeps it accessible, including for readers who need illustrations to stay hooked.
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- Best fit · 8–12
- Read aloud · 7–11
- Independent · 8–12
Prose load
Moderate
Visual support
High
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Workable
Works well for
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
2 / 5 · Better outside bedtime
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Adventure fans
- Funny mysteries
- Found family
- Team stories
Avoid if
- Wants gentle bedtime
- Wants standalone story
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
Secret passages, museum break-ins and a threatening note pull Olive's squad into a twistier case than book one. Following Zeke's family secret back to a lost shipwreck, readers get the satisfying click of clues linking up as a crew of underdogs proves it again.
- Secret world
- The underdog winning
- Friendship and belonging
- Being a detective
Why parents love it
The second Misfits leans harder into an intricate whodunnit, weaving in real threads of family history and heritage. Santat's art keeps it flying for reluctant readers, and the found-family warmth that made book one work is only stronger here.
- Shared humour
- Quick to read
In the series
The Misfits.
3 books · open the series →
About the creators
About the creators.
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