It's Elementary

Mavis Miller #1

by Elise Bryant, Aure Nash (Narrator)

A fast-paced, completely delightful new mystery about what happens when parents get a little too involved in their kids' schools, from NAACP Image Award nominee Elise Bryant.

Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee.
As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal's plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day.
Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.

Brilliantly written, It's Elementary is a quick-witted, escapist romp that perfectly captures just how far parents will go to give their kids the very best, all wrapped in a mystery that will leave you guessing to the very end.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Romance, Audiobook, Contemporary

Audiobook

First published July 9, 2024

About the author

Elise Bryant is the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of Happily Ever Afters, One True Loves, Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling, and the forthcoming It’s Elementary. For many years, Elise had the joy of working as a special education teacher, and now she spends her days reading, writing, and eating dessert. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Long Beach, California. You can visit her online at www.elisebryant.com.

Reviews

[Lala BooksandLala · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had such a perfect balance of mystery, romance, social commentary, and self discovery.

[Shawnaci Schroeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5
- This is the first mystery that I’ve really really loved and I don’t know how it doesn’t have more hype! I feel like this book is going to make me a cozy mystery girl.
- Love how this story was the perfect mix between funny and series topics. This would be a fun cozy book for a book club.
- I’ve already purchased book two in the series! If you love abbot elementary, you’ll really love this book! It gives a similar vibe!

[Hannah B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept of this one, and the execution was pretty good as well. The romance was light and fluffy with a bit of a third act. This probably would’ve been five stars if the romance was given a bit more room to shine, since I was always hoping for a few more crumbs.

My favorite part was the narrator, Aure Nash, because her voice work was hilarious! It felt like she had a lot of fun recording this one. The ending was a tad rushed, but overall this was really fun.

I received an ALC from PRHaudio. All opinions are honest and my own.

[Afoma (Reading Middle Grade) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun, smart cozy mystery about over-involved parents but also about racism, motherhood, and community.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started strong. Really, really strong.

And then it just...kept going. The pacing felt like it was all over the place, the point where the middle dragged and the ending felt like it lasted forever.

However, it had lots of really good parts: from Black working moms vs stay at home white moms, how children interact with privilege and race, to Pearl and her ever-growing list of nemeses, to a kinda steamy slow-burn low-spice romance brewing between main character Mavis and a hot school psychologist.

[Vivian Diaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 ⭐️ This started off okay for me but there were way too many plot lines. It was annoying. The mystery wasn’t really a mystery. It was very obvious who the culprit was. Some parts did make me giggle but other parts were pretty boring and all over the place. I also didn’t care for the romance that was thrown in here. It made me cringe with the insta love.

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a laugh out loud delight of a cozish mystery set in the utter chaos that is elementary school PTA. I mean where else will you find a more contentious bunch of back stabbing, power hungry, manipulative psychos who will do literally anything to ensure little Muffy's transcripts dazzle the admissions office at Stamford?

Mavis Miller wants no part of it. Raising her 7 year old daughter Pearl on her own (with a little help from her retired lawyer dad) while her ex-husband travels the world with his band and fighting the good fight at a non-profit is enough without adding the politics and infighting of monthly PTA meetings. But she's utterly powerless in the face of the relentless Knoll Elementary School PTA president Trisha, who taps Mavis to chair the PTA's brand new DEI committee, diversity, equity, and inclusion. What Trisha wants, Trisha gets.

At her first PTA meeting Mavis watches as Trisha's grand plan to transform Knoll Elementary into a school for gifted students is uncerimonously scrapped by the new principal. She also just happens to be in the bathroom to hear just how angry Trisha is about that and she just happens to witness Trisha acting very suspicously in the school parking lot later that night while walking Pearl's puppy.

And then the principal disappears.

Now convinced that Trisha's bizarre behavior and the principals vanshing much be connected she teams up with the school psychologist (who's movie star good looks are just an added bonus and in no way plays into her decision to partner with him, at all) to try to figure out just what is happening at Knoll Elementary.

This is a fast paced, clever charmer that had me rooting like crazy for smart, hilariously sarcastic Mavis to crack the case. As this is what I call a "set up" novel (at least I hope it is) for a longer series we meet a large number of supporting players in Mavis's world and the board does get a bit overfilled with both potential bad guys and red herring subplots but the resolution when it comes is quite satisfying. Mavis is every cool mom you've wanted to commiserate with at the class bake sale, her caustic, but never cruel, sense of humor shines through every page but author Elise Bryant doesn't put her on a pedestal. Her exhaustion, feelings of insecurity, and endless frustration with school systems's designed to keep every kid who isn't white from succeeding resonate deeply. She's a fighter, but wishes she didn't have to be.

I cannot wait to see where her next battle takes her.

[Kelly Stella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw some other reviewers complained that this book had too many plot lines in it, and I would tend to agree with that. I also felt like it could not pick a tone to stick with. Sometimes it felt very silly, and then other parts were grounded in really serious and important issues. I don’t think it found a good balance between the two and it sometimes felt jarring to read from one scene to the next.

The resolution to the missing principal plot was not too difficult to guess. I feel like the author left way too many hints toward how that one was gonna go. The other mini mystery in the story, however, was harder to guess. The climax of that one got a bit too exaggerated and silly, though, when the issues it was discussing are worth a better discussion (I’m an elementary school teacher, so it hit a little closer to home).

There is a “barely there“ romance plot, that’s not based on much except an interesting meeting and instant attraction 🤷‍♀️ So if you are reading for the mystery and don’t want any romance, there really isn’t enough that it’s going to distract from the story. However, if you were hoping for a bigger romance plot, I would pick up something else.

I think this book would’ve done better if it just picked a few things to focus on. I think it tried to cram too many things in, and as I said, kind of swung tonally from being too silly to super serious, especially at the end. While the main story lines wrap up, the book ends in a way that hints this could be the beginning of a series. I’m not sure I’m interested in it enough to read the next one, unfortunately.

[myo ⋆｡˚ ❀ * · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars!

pretty solid adult debut from this author! i definitely would be up to read more by her in the future. i’m not really into murder mysteries but this was fine, i really liked the romance.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Final Rating: 2/5⭐️
Sigh, this book almost put me in a book slump

It’s Elementary was one of my highly anticipated reads of 2024 and I was sadly disappointed. This book read more like a young adult fiction book and was a bit too quirky for my liking. Some parts of the book made me chuckle but once I heard one of the characters say “Woke-ify” ,I knew it just wasn’t for me. 😵‍💫

[Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

It’s Elementary has a little bit of everything: cozy mystery, romance, and an adversity story all rolled into one. While the variety is charming, the numerous plotlines can feel overwhelming, and the main mystery sometimes gets lost in the mix. Though it had potential, it fell short for me, leaving me wishing for a more focused narrative.

[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the plot twist is funnier and more absurd than the red herrings and the reader’s guess.

Mavis is a single mother trying to get a well-deserved promotion in her job. She does not have time to get roped into leading the school's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee by the overbearing PTA president. She definitely shouldn’t be investigating the disappearance of the school’s principal or getting the hot, funny school counsellor involved.

I loved Mavis’s distinct voice. She’s exhausted, wrung out, tired of playing to society’s expectations of her as a single working, black mother.

I loved the depiction of Mavis handling being a mother and the clear love and stress she has for her daughter. I enjoyed how a lot of this was a dig or satire at so many different things.

Don’t read this for the mystery because you’ll probably be let down.

The narrator did an incredible job with all the different characters (and their ages), even if i did wince every time the PTA president spoke.

I will be reading on in this series if I can get the audiobook from my library. Mum, if you’re reading this: this is why I was giggling next to you in the shuttle.

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[Monte Price]

This has probably come the closest to scratching the itch left by my Finlay Donovan Is Killing It obsession from last year. Mavis as a main character was instantly relatable and a refreshing voice to get the story from. Her daughter, Pearl, was also a joy to get in the story. Her father popping in on occasion was great. The PTA drama as the investigation into the disapppearance of the new principal was fun to delve into. There was a little bit of a romance between Mavis and the guidance counselor/school psychologist that I was really invested in. Even the drama at the non profit where Mavis worked did a lot to add to the narrative and Bryant was able to balance all of these elements in a way that never made the narrative feel like it was slowing down or being crowded out. Easily the kind of book I can see having broad appeal and if you haven't already picked it up, you're missing out.

[katayoun Masoodi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2. it wasn't bad, it was just a bit boring and i thought the main character and her inner thoughts were more of a teenager, all in all, if you think you want to read it then do, but if you can read another book, you won't miss this.

[kimberly ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

:)

[Gabriella · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn’t for me! Our protagonist is an annoying knockoff of Issa from Insecure, right down to the job at We Got Y’all. I get the whole concept of a main character not being perfect, but this is just not the way to pull it off. Mavis’ constant whining about everything going wrong in her life (mostly due to her own decisions) was just too much.

There’s also a lot of inconsistency in Mavis’ development—she waffles between saying she works in a nonprofit to continue her family’s legacy of public service, to saying she’s stuck in a dead-end job she only chose because she needed something reliable to pay the bills. Perhaps a more thoughtful author could have shown how both can be true, but Elise Bryant leaves us with these inconsistencies without attempting any sort of reconciliation. My girlfriend is training to be a school psychologist, so I did love the inclusion of that career path for Mavis’ love interest. I found their actual relationship to be flat from beginning to end, though this could be tied to my disenchantment with most straight romance arcs these days.

The setting of the book itself is interesting, but once again, our author fails to fully commit to fleshing it out. We have the outlines of an increasingly white school in a late-stage gentrification neighborhood, but no characters in this world rise to anything but caricatures. Speaking of people I hated, the dad-through-the-phone was just soooo grating throughout the whole story. This whole conceit that Corey wanted to be super close to Pearl, but just had no choice but to follow his heart’s call to be a traveling musician?!?!? It seemed like a lot of justifying quasi-deadbeat behavior to me!!! If you can get a job in your field in your city, and you choose not to for personal preferences, then you are just not that committed to being an active parent. Why was everyone in this book trying to convince us otherwise??? I did not understand it.

This wasn’t a miserable read from beginning to end, and I didn’t actually mind the twists in the mysteries. So, I guess I would recommend it if you just really love mommy murder mysteries, and want to read every single one that is published. However, for almost everyone else, I’d advise y’all to keep looking!

[The Bookish Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you PRH audio for the free listening copy. #PRHAudioPartner

For fans of Abbott Elementary, Bryant gives us a cozy mystery with a little bit of humor, drama, and romance. Mavis, the mother of 7-year-old Pearl, is trying to figure out the mystery behind the school's principal's disappearance. She is simultaneously spearheading the PTA's DEI committee. She is one of the very few Black moms, and although annoyed with how she came to be in the position, she is determined to try to make a difference in the school.

With a murderer on the loose, Knoll Elementary is full of antics. Together, Mavis and the school psychologist—who may or may not be in love—try to make sense of it all. The head of the PTA is plotting to turn the school into a school for the gifted. Mavis takes on defending basic civil rights. 'It's Elementary' brings up strong topics like single motherhood with help, DEI issues, banned books, and so much more. I wouldn't have been able to guess what this book brings to life. It is a medium-paced book with slow moments, but the narrator keeps you engaged as she lends her voice to many characters throughout the book. My favorite character is Pearl, Mavis's daughter, who is spunky and 7 going on 30. PTA moms and others can enjoy this book.

3.5/5 ⭐️

I'd recommend this one.

[Qua'Tesha Ratliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars! Whoever narrated for Trisha shouldn’t have! 🤣🤣🤣

[Andrea Beatriz Arango]

Vibes: Abbott Elementary x Only Murders In the Building

IT'S ELEMENTARY was everything I wanted it to be. A light murder mystery for those of us who grew up watching too many Law & Order SVU re-runs as kids and maybe a tad too many crime podcasts & docus as adults 😅.

But I mean... What would YOU do if you saw the head of the school PTA dragging heavy black bags and cleaning supplies out of the school at night, and then the very next day your principal was declared missing?

EXACTLY. 🕵️‍♀️

This book was a completely different vibe from Elise's YA romances and I loved it. Can't wait to see what else she does in the adult space.

P.S. I subjected my husband to much speculation as I read the book and am happy to report I WAS RIGHT.

[Joce (squibblesreads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

i keep reading BANGER AFTER BANGER. i cannot say enough good things about this book. elise bryant if you’re looking for new bffs, i have a lot of suburban mom tales i’d love to share with you 😭

[Wobilba · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this fun cozy little mystery story about the disappearance of a school principal and the over involved PTA mommies. I'm glad i did not try to guess who did what and allowed myself to enjoy the journey this mystery took me on.
The narrator did a fantastic job bring this story to life.

Story: 3.5 stars
Narration: 4 stars

[Ilyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 rounded up. Mavis’ behavior in an emergency makes no sense. From taking a nap while being locked in the room, to caring more about presenting calm to her daughter instead of protecting her from harm in an escalating dangerous situation. Not to mention her nonchalant attitude to the kidnapped victim with head trauma.

She could have alerted EMS that principal Smith needed urgent medial attention in the email instead of waiting until everyone arrived to show off that she cracked the case. Ta da! It’s a weird characterization when you can agree with a protagonist’s negative self-talk that she’s self-absorbed and oblivious to other people.

This took me getting through a day treating patients to think about how bizarre and fan service Jasmine’s behavior is in that scene, unlike any health care provider in real life. A doctor sees EMS bring a man out on a stretcher, and she keeps standing there chatting, instead of running the rapid response as the highest ranked healthcare provider present? Or at least asking the paramedics if she can help?

I agree with other reviewers about the snail pacing of living inside Mavis’ every minute thought and feeling, too many plot threads, and tone inconsistency of lighthearted treatment of very serious topics of book banning and intimate partner violence. I wanted to rate this higher on the concept. It sounds like I’m taking this too seriously. But this book is grounded in our reality and picks up these serious issues only to flippantly discard them.

[Lenore ⸆⸉ · Rating 5 out of 5]

RTC

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Elementary is such an entertaining, well-written book. Timely themes for the current situation in the United States from the perspective of a black mom who just wants to be the best parent she can, Elise Bryant gives readers a great story with laugh-out-loud moments, memorable characters, and great plotting. Mavis is very relatable with her overflowing obligations that war with feeling like she has to work extra hard to excel at everything. Mavis’ daughter Pearl is absolutely adorable, her best friend Jasmine is a hoot, and the other moms at the school are memorable–at times hilarious and others highly annoying (especially Trisha). There is also a swoony romance with a handsome, very sweet guy who’s more than happy to be Watson to Mavis’ Sherlock. In short, the character development is excellent. The narrator Aure Nash was so good. She was very vibrant and perfectly embodied Mavis and all the characters in their varied personalities.

I had so much fun with this book! Looking forward to the next book with Mavis!

[Anniek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ohh this was SUCH a fun time! From the first chapter on, I was thoroughly entertained. Every time I read a cosy mystery, I'm reminded how much I enjoy them, and this one left me wanting more. It's so much fun but also full of heart, so you genuinely care about the characters. I'm especially impressed at how fleshed out and interesting the kid character was.

[Teneisha (Teesbookjourney) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's Elementary by Elise Bryant is a well-written and engaging story that blends humour, mystery, and the challenges of modern parenting. Mavis Miller, juggling a demanding job, a spirited daughter, and the pressures of a multigenerational household, finds herself unexpectedly thrust into the chaos of PTA politics. The book's strength lies in its witty dialogue and sharp observations about elementary school dynamics.

However, one aspect of the story that was frustrating was Mavis's lack of assertiveness in her professional life. While she navigates her personal life confidently, her inability to stand up for herself at work felt incongruent and left me wanting more growth in her character. The situation begged for a turning point, some resolution where she would finally push back, but it never materialized. This left a lingering dissatisfaction as the story wrapped up without addressing this significant aspect of her character. Despite this, the book offers a quick, entertaining read with plenty of twists to keep you engaged.

[Lorraine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yes, it is elementary and reads like a novice sleuth story not even a good mystery novel. I would describe the protagonist as rambling and annoying. The story has too many plots and is out of its league trying to take on DEI issues and conversations in schools. There is a little romance story that feels awkward too. A reader would not be at fault for wanting to scream and ask her to get to the point, is this mystery, romance, or cultural commentary? Even the ending feels irrelevant. I admit, after a while, I skimmed more than read. Maybe a younger reader will been more engaged. So, I am happily donating my book to the library’s juvenile section. But I know even at a younger age I would still give this a single star.

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this book! pearl was the star of the show i fear… my favorite part is when she’s creating a list of her nemesis ���� she’s so real for that she had me cracking up lol. this made me a big fan of cozy mysteries and im gonna have to get into elise bryant’s other books bc the writing was so good!

[Sammee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good story with interesting twists. I did not like the rambling monologue that was inside Mavis' mind.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun cozy mystery with a hint of romance.

I enjoyed following Mavis as she tries to piece together the mystery of the missing principal. How she joins forces with the school psychologist to investigate the different aspects of the story.

The scenes with Mavis and her daughter, Pearl, were so cute. I really liked their interactions.

This book also hits on topics that are happening now including DEI teams, and parents trying to police the books that are in libraries.

This was a fun one & I’ll def read more cozy mysteries by this author.

Thx PRH Audio for the early audiobook.