The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels

The Swifts #1

by Beth Lincoln, Nikki Patel (Narrator)

In her family, Shenanigan Swift has always been synonymous with mischief. As Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude always says, "She can't help her name." When a family reunion suddenly turns into a murder mystery, Shenanigan is determined to catch the perpetrator. A celebration of words and individuality, this remarkable debut is both brilliantly contemporary and instantly classic.

shenanigan, noun
1. Tomfoolery, skulduggery, mischief of all varieties
2. A devious trick for an underhanded purpose

On the day they are born, every Swift child is brought before the sacred family dictionary. They are given a name and a definition, one it's assumed they will grow up to match. Unfortunately, Shenanigan Swift doesn't much like being told what to do.

Troublemaker and mischief enthusiast Shenanigan rattles around the grand old Swift house rehearsing Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude's funeral with her older sisters Phenomena and Felicity, plotting future crimes, and wondering whether she is herself by choice or design. When the Family Reunion floods the house with people, Shenanigan is excited to meet her rogue's gallery of relatives--until one of them gives Schadenfreude a deadly shove down the stairs. Shenanigan had planned to spend the reunion hunting for Grand-Uncle Vile's hidden treasure. But more murders and an awful lot of suspects--from newcomers Daisy and Atrocious to beloved Uncle Maelstrom--keep complicating Shenanigans plans.

With some help from her sisters and their newly befriended cousin Erf, can Shenanigan catch the killer? And in a world where definitions are so important, how will she define herself?

Genres: Middle Grade, Mystery, Fiction, Childrens, Humor, Audiobook, Family

10 pages, Audiobook

First published February 7, 2023

Reviews

[Pam Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn’t keep reading it after Shenanigan met her cousin which she referred to as “they” since she didn’t know if the child was a girl or boy. No thank you! God made us either male or female. And science will confirm that as well.

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had so much potential!!! I debated briefly about continuing to read it because I was in love with the plot and some of the characters. It's a fun, quirky, vocabulary-intensive, comically gothic tale of tweens coping with a family gathering. However, I am sick and tired of children's book shoving sexual issues into kids faces!! STOP WRITING BOOKS THAT HAVE GENDER ISSUES! There were several pages of description about a child who could be a boy or a girl - who's name was Erth - gender neutral and the main character debated if it was rude to ask are you a boy or a girl... then when she does the character answers I am neither. This book is marketed to 9, 10, and 11 year olds, they don't need this kind of confusion.

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whimsical, witty debut middle grade murder mystery full of word play and puns. The Swifts are an ancient English family with many quirky rituals- one of them is the tradition of naming every new child by opening the dictionary and pointing out a word thought to determine their character; another is the massive family reunion they host every ten years when Swifts from around the world gather at the family manor, a decaying three story mansion, to try and find a massive treasure hoard hidden by an ancestor. Shenanigan Swift, youngest of three sisters who still actively live in the house, is determined that during this upcoming reunion she will be the one to find the treasure once and for all. But almost immediately, fights behind to erupt between the contentious Swifts, and a scream in the hallway leads to the discovery of a body at the bottom of the stairs, and then a deadly Scrabble duel, and then a bloody accident in the library... before she knows it, Shenanigan is searching not for a treasure hoard but for a murderer. This book includes nonbinary, trans, and queer characters and an overall message of being true to one's self despite societal and familiar pressures and expectations. An excellent read for anyone who enjoys a good all-ages tale.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, leave the nonbinary stuff out of kids books.

[Neil R. Coulter · Rating 1 out of 5]

There’s a scene in the middle of The Swifts in which a trans woman tells her history to a nonbinary child. It has nothing to do with the story at all, and those characters have little importance to the main narrative. The scene sits there on the page as if wearing a label that says, “Look at me: I’m Queer Representation in a children’s book.” But then by the novel’s conclusion, it’s clear that this isn’t a novel at all; it’s only a Message about how we can each choose to be anything we want to be. So it turns out that the trans–nonbinary conversation is actually the main point of the book, and the bland murder mystery and overworked wordplay are irrelevant. When I realized this, I felt cheated. I now have more reasons to affirm that I am not a Swiftie.

Also, a note to the author: Don't begin your book with an introduction that reads like a passive-aggressive attack against your American publisher for requiring you to change some spellings from British to American. I'm sure it doesn't make your publisher feel bad, and it makes your American readers feel that you're treating them like idiots.

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Language changes, because people change. We need new words, new names for things. Like . . . like the way there wasn't a word for telephone until the telephone was invented. Do you see?"

Enjoyed the central role the dictionary plays in this gruesome little mystery. Especially appreciate how it touches on the fluidity of language and how it's constantly shifting and changing. Most people think the dictionary tells us how to spell and define words, but in fact its primary purpose is to record word usage, which is in a constant state of evolution.

For an engaging read on the intended use of dictionaries, check out Word by Word by Kory Stamper, who worked as a lexicographer for Merriam-Webster for almost 20 years.

[Linnea · Rating 5 out of 5]

didn't expect my 1st middle grade book of 2023 to knock it out of the park but this book was written by someone who clearly grew up reading great children's book and knew everything to make theirs. creepy mean relatives, a giant house with secrets, murder, treasure, betrayal, warm family moments, chosen family, sibling conflict, humor, fabulous!

*** big bonus lgbtq/ onbionary characters that aren't used as teaching moments but are just there being active characters

[Reilly Zimbric · Rating 1 out of 5]

In truth, I wanted to love this book. It is clever and quirky, and I always love a whodunnit.
In reality, for some reason that I haven’t quite pinpointed yet, this book had a lot of trouble keeping my attention. I really had to force myself to pay attention and found myself skimming through the pages quite a bit.

[Caryn - iam.caryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Beth Lincoln continues to write books as effortlessly clever and endlessly entertaining as her debut, The Swifts, I will be part of her audience FOR LIFE.

I can already tell that this is going to be one of my favourite reads of the year… it’s honestly one of my favourite reads of all time.

If you or the middle grade reader in your life is a lover of wordplay, murder mysteries and/or wacky family dynamics, grab a copy immediately!

During a family reunion where everyone is trying to find a long lost treasure, our protagonist, Shenanigan, and her sisters, Felicity and Phenomena, are trying to solve a whodunit! They gather cousins that are of their age group to help, too.

The story is filled with humour and mayhem that keeps you hooked and laughing throughout. The cast of characters is quirky, unusual and loveable (well most are haha). Plus I loved seeing LGBTQ+/non-binary rep.

I wholeheartedly recommend the audiobook. Nikki Patel delivered a performance that was absolute perfection.

I wish this book had been around when I was a kid because this would have become my entire personality. This is an obsession-level quality of book.

The entire Swift family will live in my heart forever.

*Disclaimer* I received a complimentary audiobook from PRH Audio. An honest review was provided.

[Elise Cripe]

read this on the recommendation of my 11 year old. ❤️

[Kari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gross. A kids book with a gay uncle, a non-binary child and a trans child. Liberalism is ruining everything.

[Samantha | samanthakreads]

I've seen this book being talked about a bit more so I did a quick overview/skim before committing to the entire book. Parents be aware that this book contains an uncle who is gay, a non-binary character, and a trans character. Plus I noticed some swear words.

In my personal opinion, this type of content doesn't need to be in books for kids 8-12 years old.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anytime a book is more focused on pushing woke agenda telling a decent story, it’s disappointing. But when it’s a middle grade novel geared towards young people, it’s just plain despicable.

[Barb reads......it ALL! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darkly funny, cleverly inventive, decidedly fun!!

I look forward to more from Beth Lincoln!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable and hilarious! I loved how the members of the family embodied their names, and the question of whether their name suited their natures, or they grew to suit their names! So fun, especially for word nerds and mystery fans. Kind of a high body count for a middle grade . . . OR WAS THERE? (Some people just won't stay dead, you know?) It reminded me of the underappreciated Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger.

[Summerfire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was wonderful. I loved it. And also, everyone can learn some new words! Even adults.

[Melissa Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. I found this one delightful. She would have gotten a 5 if it weren’t for the awkwardly placed “issues”. I adored the wordplay and the whodunit. Loved me some Aunt Schadenfreude! Adult Melissa wishes little girl Melissa would have had this book. Also, hoping this survives as a stand alone. I would hate to see this develop into a series.

[Belle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific romp through a middle school adventure this one.

If you need a little break from your more serious reading this might be the one.

It’s a cross between The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune and The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz with a little resemblance to the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley.

Essentially, a big unhinged and somewhat silly family with sisters that sort of rule the day. A family in which when you are born your name is pulled from a blind turning of dictionary pages with names like Shenanigan, Phenomena, Maelstrom and Candour.

The artwork may be worth the price of admission alone.

Here is a sampling:

“Shenanigan was pretty sure most people’s family reunions didn’t have a body count, but then again, most people’s libraries didn’t require a helmet.”

“A funeral is supposed to be a way to say good bye. You look inside yourself and find a place to put your grief, not somewhere hidden, not the top shelf or the back of the cupboard, but maybe by a window, where it can catch the light.”

“No wonder I found this case so difficult to crack, …. You hardly planned anything. Everything you do is reactive. You’re like nitrogen. On your own you’re pretty harmless, but introduce you to an unstable situation and…. You make everything worse.”

“Family was exhausting and complicated, and everyone was their own person, which meant you had just as much chance of getting along with them as any stranger off the street. Just sharing blood wasn’t enough to make someone proper family;”

[Vanessadoes · Rating 1 out of 5]

This wanted to be Phantom Tollbooth so bad. The introduction made the author come across as the most annoying theater girl you knew in high school, and the writing was so *knowing* and self-righteous, I did not enjoy it. I wanted the humor and puzzles to feel effortless.

[Jan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author relied far too much on the naming gimic instead of actually giving the characters distinct and interesting personalities. The plot is just meh.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea was interesting, but the book was not. I mean, it was okay and I eventually got invested, but it wasn’t one of those mysteries where I was so engrossed in the plot that I couldn’t stop reading. There was a lot of moving parts that just didn’t fit together as nicely as I would have liked. Highly considering naming my child Phenomena though.

[Cris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute book. Lots of word play, mystery and intrigue! I definitely think any middle schooler would love this book!

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was fun and the story creative and enjoyable. Clearly LGBTQ promoting and the not boy or girl character is not healthy for children.

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dangers of Christmas book shopping: I went out going to pick books for kids and ended up with titles I wanted to check out myself.

I ended up not getting this for any child, and it was a good call; it was too long and the plot a bit muddled for kids who are not seriously into books. But it was a lot of fun for adults who like reading children's adventure stories (and with glorious illustrations). Particularly the first chapters, the verve with the language, the names, the eccentric everything, a couple of twists already, glorious. It even made me compare it mentally already to favorites like the Penderwick books and Frances Hardinge's writing...

But it does not quite live up to the standards of the first chapters throughout (except the illustrations, which remain glorious throughout): the verve with language is less there, fewer puns. And I think objectively the book is too long, the murder plots too contrived (and too many gory murders for children's books) while at the same time the personality of the sisters clashing and looking after one another and their relationship with their caretakers and their absent parents is not enough there. (Felicity, for example, needed more on-page justice to her character, and IMO she deserved some payback over the moth trick...). It all felt unbalanced somehow. And too long for middle grade, I keep hitting that note (I think it is long in order to drop red herrings and many clues for a surprise denouement).

It did not make its mind if it wanted to have magic-supernatural being real or not. Its main message is ostensibly about people being able to define themselves by choice and not the names assigned to them but then it has the names being right unnaturally so (except once for surprise, and that is never explained) and magic talking to the dead machine. I am fine with either type of story, no magic or magic, but I want the rules followed throughout, underlying it all, rather than just having nice speeches which are contradicted by the all setup of the universe. Pick one!

Something worth pointing out is that this book is very, for lack of a better word and with no negative connotations intended, "woke," progressive in a certain definition, very liberal in a certain modern definition, and super focused on being didactic about gender identity issues. (Very Twitter, pre Elon at least. I wonder if this will feel dated in a few years. And my feeling is, ah bless the author, her (I checked pronouns) is in the right place, but I still rolled my eyes at stuff that seemed forced to be intentionally didactic and virtue signaling. Like the Marco!Polo! game gets diversified with the addition of Amelia Earheart and Olaudah Equiano which I cannot help feeling have names with many more syllables and not as fun and sonorous to scream out loud. The sidekick is a nonbinary kid, and we are told of their nonbinaryness right from the start because apparently it is really important (in English, where you do not need to put gender in verbs or adjectives) to make sure at once if a kid is a boy or a girl to the point of asking them straight out (it seems rude to me; what if they consider their gender identity to be unquestionably reflected in their appearance? Mind you, in Portuguese, sooner or later they will need to use an adjective or verb matching their gender, and that is solved). And a nice speech from a trans character about how "when I was born, everybody thought I was a boy. The doctors said I was a boy. My parents bought me boys’ clothes. I had to learn to talk in order to explain the situation to them, and they were terribly embarrassed by their mistake" and I am sorry I just can't take this seriously: the newborn baby being aware, before they could speak of what boys and girls are and the clothes it is being put in (baby clothes are usually just baby clothes!), it implies all kinds of underlying metaphysical (soul related for sure, consciousness related, and gender as some kind of fixed absolute concrete thing) stuff which just made me think of that Terry Pratchett saying, the problem with keeping an open mind is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. (And 99% of it will be junk: spam or ads). Maybe I was just cranky while reading it because my mind was quite busy feeling sorry for itself while my body was fighting a cold.

I am not rating the book considering these didactic intentions, since that seems intentional (very very very intentional!) and likely precisely what many readers want and might mean a lot to them. I am rating it based on everything else - first chapters are 5 stars, good dénouement, but too long and need more focus/depth to the 3 sisters and their family.

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this is about as much fun as a novel can be. There are some who might say this is an illustrated story written for middle-graders, but I think that can only be folks who have gotten old & boring & lost their sense of imaginative joy. So no matter what age you are, you should spend a little time with the Swift family.

Shenanigan Swift is, I think, around 12 years old. She has a middle sister Phenomena and an older sister Felicity, and all of the sisters irritate and are irritated by each other in the ways that only siblings can. They live in the House with their uncle Maelstrom and their arch-aunt Schadenfreude and Cook.

The once-a-decade Swift family reunion is about to descend on their home. And all the relatives, both close and distant, will try to find the hidden-for-generations family treasure that is the Hoard, while playing some extreme linguistic competitive sports. Then the body count begins to rise, and folks are not always true to their names; turns out each person is actually responsible for deciding who they will be -- fancy that.

I can't wait to read whatever Beth Lincoln writes next. And I love Claire Powell's illustrations for this story.

[Kristen Kuntze · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so good! I loved the humor but loved how much heart was in it. There were so many wonderful moments where my heart was just bursting. I absolutely adored the message so much that we are all more than our name and more than what people/society expects of us. Would love this to adapted into an animated movie!

[Debra Covell · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - This book was just plain awful. I truly don’t understand the glowing reviews. I struggle to think of one middle grade student who could make it through more than one chapter. There are too many characters and too much trying to be witty and whimsical - without achieving either.

[Jennifer Chlumsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was reading it to my kids, and it was not appropriate for my age. We did not finish the book. Maybe more suited for YA instead of children’s section.

[Rob Anybody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es sind viele wunderbar vergnügliche Ideen in diesem Buch. Es kann sein, dass ich nicht alle der klassen Wortspiele im Original mitbekommen habe :) Die, die sich mir erschlossen haben, waren pfundig und ich habe unter anderem deretwegen einige Male laut gelacht.

Ich finde es großartig, wie selbstverständlich Beth Lincoln den Regenbogen in dieser Geschichte einbaut. Warum Menschen, die „The Swifts“ deshalb nicht gelesen haben und es trotzdem negativ bewerten und einen Kommentar ausschließlich zu diesem Thema abgeben, kann ich in keinster Weise nachvollziehen.

Es finden sich so viele herzerfrischend klasse Charaktere in diesem Buch, dass ich den Flints auch für den zweiten Teil treu bleiben werde :)

[Shaila · Rating 5 out of 5]

A huge, eccentric family
A huge, eccentric house
A history of secrets
A horde of treasure waiting to be found
People will start dropping like flies

Sounds like the latest dark thriller, right? No! It’s a delightful middle grade murder mystery!

Every member of the Swift family is named after a random word in the dictionary and Shenanigan Swift would like to know whether their names determine their personality. When her whole family descends on her home to look for long-hidden treasure, ambitions will rise, and bodies will fall. It’s up to Shenanigan and her sisters and cousin to find the murderer among them and save the family.

Soooo funny, absolutely delightful, very well plotted, great setting. We loved every minute.