Art Attack

by James Ponti

In Art Attack, the third book in the Sherlock Society series, a group of young detectives goes undercover in Miami's vibrant street art scene to identify and catch a mysterious graffiti artist known as Funky Munky. The kids must run a clever sting operation while managing the involvement of their watchful family members. Packed with humor, teamwork, and urban culture, this mystery blends detective work with artistic intrigue.

Big Idea

Great detectives—and great writers—pay close attention to details, patterns, and the stories that people tell through their choices, whether those choices show up in a graffiti tag or a carefully crafted sentence.

Discussion Questions

1.Why do you think Funky Munky uses street art as a form of expression, and does the medium change how you feel about whether what they're doing is right or wrong?
2.How do the young detectives balance following the rules of their sting operation with the unpredictability of real investigations—and what does that tell us about problem-solving?
3.The detectives must go undercover, which means hiding parts of their true identities. Have you ever had to present a different version of yourself in a new situation, and how did that feel?
4.How does the Miami street art scene function almost like a character in the story—what details does the author use to bring that setting to life?
5.Family members complicate the investigation throughout the book. Do you think adult oversight helps or hinders the Sherlock Society, and what does the story suggest about trust between kids and adults?

Classroom Activities

Tag, You're It: Design Your Detective Identity

Students design their own undercover identity and personal 'tag'—a simple visual symbol or stylized name—that represents who they are without giving everything away, just as Funky Munky uses street art as both a signature and a disguise. Students then write a short first-person paragraph in the voice of their undercover persona, explaining what their tag means and what mystery they would investigate in their own community.

Lesson Plan

⏱ 45–55 minutes📦 Index cards or half-sheets of paper, pencils, markers or colored pencils, writing paper or notebooks, optional: printed examples of street art tags for visual reference

Learning Goals

Students will analyze how setting and visual culture influence character motivation and plot in a mystery novel.
Students will practice writing in a distinct first-person voice by crafting a persona-based narrative paragraph.
Students will connect visual art choices (symbols, style, color) to personal identity and storytelling.
Students will identify how authors use details and description to build atmosphere and reveal character.
Students will demonstrate understanding of undercover investigation as a plot device and explore its ethical dimensions.

Activity Steps

1.Begin with a brief class discussion: What is a 'tag' in street art, and why might an artist choose to stay anonymous? Show 2-3 examples of famous street art signatures (e.g., Banksy) to spark thinking.
2.Ask students to brainstorm three things about themselves—a strength, a hobby, and something they care about—that they would want hidden in a symbol if they were working undercover like the Sherlock Society.
3.On a half-sheet of paper or index card, students sketch their personal 'tag'—a simple logo, stylized initials, or symbol—that encodes their identity without spelling it out literally.
4.Students write a 4-6 sentence paragraph in the first person, in the voice of their undercover persona, explaining: Who are you undercover? What does your tag mean? What mystery in your school or neighborhood would you investigate and why?
5.Students pair-share their tags and paragraphs with a partner, who tries to guess what real trait or interest is hidden in the tag design—mirroring how the Sherlock Society decodes Funky Munky's clues.
6.Debrief as a class: How did choosing a symbol change the way you thought about your own identity? How might Funky Munky feel seeing people try to decode their art?

Standards Connections

ELA: RL.4.3 — Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story, drawing on specific details in the text
ELA: W.4.3 — Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences using effective technique and descriptive details
ELA: RL.5.6 — Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described
SEL: Self-awareness — Students explore personal identity, values, and how they present themselves in different contexts
Visual Arts: Creating — Students use art-making to express personal meaning and connect visual choices to narrative storytelling

Pace-Write-Read Study with Pace-Write It!

Art Attack by James Ponti is a masterclass in middle grade pacing—the kind of book that keeps young readers flipping pages because every scene feels urgent, every chapter ending feels incomplete in the best possible way. Ponti writes with the confidence of a storyteller who trusts his readers to keep up, layering plot developments with quick, punchy dialogue and vivid environmental details drawn from Miami's street art culture. For writers studying craft, this book is a treasure map of intentional decisions: how to open a scene mid-action, how to use setting as more than backdrop, and how to let humor breathe inside moments of genuine tension. The Sherlock Society series is built on the engine of ensemble storytelling, and Art Attack demonstrates how a writer manages multiple voices, perspectives, and agendas without losing narrative momentum. Ponti's prose moves the way a good investigation does—gathering clues, doubling back, accelerating toward revelation. Students who study pacing in this book will notice that the author rarely stops the story to explain; instead, he embeds exposition inside action and lets characters reveal the world through what they do and say rather than through lengthy description. For the Pace-Write-Read workshop, Art Attack offers something especially valuable: a story where the art of making things—graffiti, symbols, undercover identities—mirrors the art of writing itself. Every element of craft explored in this workshop has a real-world parallel in the book's themes. Just as Funky Munky encodes meaning into a visual tag, writers encode meaning into word choice, structure, and form. Invite students to read this book not just as a mystery to solve, but as a text to decode—one deliberate craft choice at a time.

Element	How to notice or teach it in the novel
Pacing	Notice how Ponti accelerates the narrative during sting operation scenes by shortening sentences and stacking actions rapidly—ask students to find a passage where they felt their reading speed increase and identify what sentence-level choices caused it.
Plot	Map the dual-track plot: the external mystery of identifying Funky Munky and the internal tension of operating under family oversight—discuss how Ponti braids these two threads and what would be lost if one were removed.
Prosody	Read aloud a passage of dialogue between Sherlock Society members and listen for the natural rise and fall of the sentences—Ponti writes speech that sounds like real kids talking, with rhythm that rewards oral reading.
Word	Ponti uses street art vocabulary (tags, throw-ups, murals, bombing) with precision and confidence—have students collect five domain-specific words from the Miami art scenes and discuss how each word signals authenticity and place.
Concept	The central concept—that art can be both a crime and a form of communication—is introduced early and complicated throughout; ask students where in the book their own opinion about graffiti shifted, and what writing move caused that shift.
Voice & Worldview	The narrator's voice carries a wry, observational humor that reflects a kid who notices irony—find a moment where the narrator's comment on a situation reveals their worldview and discuss what values that perspective holds.
Point of View	Ponti uses a close third-person or first-person perspective that keeps readers inside the lead detective's interpretive frame—discuss how this choice limits what readers know and how that limitation creates mystery.
Setting & Place	Miami's street art scene is rendered with specific sensory and cultural detail—have students list every concrete detail Ponti uses to build the city as a setting and discuss which details do double duty by also advancing the plot.
Original Characters	Each Sherlock Society member has a distinct skill set and personality that Ponti establishes through action rather than description—ask students to identify one character and list everything they know about them that was shown, not told.
Dialogue	Ponti's dialogue is fast, overlapping, and full of personality—study a group conversation scene and notice how each character's speech pattern differs, and how the author uses dialogue to move plot forward without slowing for narration.
Details	Details about the graffiti art—style, color, placement, subject—function as clues; have students track the details surrounding Funky Munky's tags and practice writing a paragraph where a single well-chosen detail carries investigative weight.
Descriptions	Ponti tends to describe settings in motion—during action or while characters move through space—rather than in static paragraphs; have students rewrite a description from the book as a static paragraph and compare which version feels more alive.
Firsts	Pay close attention to the first time the detectives encounter Funky Munky's art—Ponti uses this moment to establish the mystery's emotional stakes; study what information is given and what is deliberately withheld to create intrigue.
Immediacy & Engagement	The book often opens scenes in medias res, dropping readers into a conversation or action already underway—have students find three scene openings and analyze what Ponti skips over to create the feeling of immediacy.
Story Scenes, Summaries & Structures	Notice how Ponti alternates between fully dramatized scenes (real-time dialogue and action) and brief summary passages that move time forward—have students chart one chapter's structure and label each section as scene or summary.
Tension / Suspense / Surprise	The sting operation creates sustained suspense because readers know things can go wrong at any moment—identify the moment of highest tension in the book and analyze how Ponti built to it through withholding information and raising stakes.
Flashback, Flash-Forward, Cliffhanger	Ponti uses chapter-ending cliffhangers strategically to keep readers moving forward—collect three chapter endings and discuss what question each one leaves open and how that question is structured to feel urgent rather than arbitrary.
Page Turns and Chapter Breaks	Study where Ponti places his chapter breaks and ask: does the chapter end on action, dialogue, a revelation, or a question? Have students experiment with writing a scene ending using each of these four techniques.
Pace & Creativity	The undercover operation requires the characters to improvise creatively under pressure—discuss how Ponti mirrors this in his prose by varying sentence length and rhythm during high-stakes improvised moments versus calmer planning scenes.
Play	Ponti allows his characters to be genuinely playful even inside serious situations—find a moment where humor or wordplay interrupts a tense scene and discuss how this tonal shift serves the story rather than undermining it.
Performance	The detectives must perform identities that aren't fully their own while undercover—discuss how the concept of performance connects to writing voice, and have students write one paragraph in a 'performed' voice different from their own.
Personality	Personality leaks through even the most plot-driven passages in this book—identify a moment where a character's unique personality hijacks what could have been a simple expository scene and discuss what writing technique made that possible.
Humor	Ponti's humor often emerges from the gap between what characters expect and what actually happens during the investigation—identify two examples of situational humor and discuss how timing and word choice make the moment land.
Pause	Even in a fast-paced mystery, Ponti pauses occasionally for a character to reflect or observe—find one such pause and discuss what it reveals that the action around it could not, and why Ponti chose that particular moment to slow down.
Poetry / Poetic Devices	Street art itself functions poetically in this story—as metaphor, symbol, and compressed communication; have students identify one passage where Ponti's language becomes figurative or compressed in a way that feels closer to poetry than prose.
Repetition	Certain images and phrases connected to Funky Munky's art recur throughout the investigation—track one repeating image or phrase and discuss how its meaning deepens or shifts each time it appears in a new context.
Rhythm	Read two contrasting passages aloud—one from a planning scene and one from the sting operation—and have students clap or tap the rhythm of the sentences to feel how Ponti varies sentence length and structure to control energy.
Punctuation	Ponti uses dashes and short declarative sentences to create a staccato effect during tense moments—have students find a high-action passage and circle every punctuation mark, then discuss how those marks shape the reading experience.
Questions	Characters in this book ask constant questions—both spoken and internal—that drive the investigation forward; have students count the questions in one chapter and discuss the difference between questions that propel plot and questions that deepen character.
Compare-Contrast	The detectives frequently compare their current situation to past cases or to what they expected would happen—find one comparison the narrator makes and discuss how contrast is used as a tool to highlight what makes this mystery unique.
Objects	Funky Munky's tags and the physical materials of street art (spray cans, stencils, walls) function as objects with symbolic weight—choose one object from the book and trace how its meaning accumulates across multiple appearances.
Threes	Notice whether Ponti uses the rule of three in his character groupings, plot complications, or descriptive lists—find one example of a three-part structure and discuss why three feels complete while two feels unresolved and four feels excessive.
Lists	When characters inventory clues or plan operations, Ponti sometimes uses list-like structures embedded in narrative prose—find one such passage and discuss how the list creates a different cognitive and rhythmic experience than a paragraph.
White Space & Negative Space	Notice the visual breathing room on the page created by short chapters, punchy paragraphs, and dialogue-heavy scenes—discuss how what Ponti leaves out of a scene can be as meaningful as what he puts in.
Art & Graphics	The subject matter of street art invites discussion of how visual images communicate meaning—if this book included illustrations of Funky Munky's tags, how would that change the reading experience, and what does the absence of images ask the reader to do?
Interactives & Gamification	The mystery structure itself is interactive—readers can try to solve the identity of Funky Munky alongside the characters; have students keep a clue log as they read, treating the book as a puzzle they are actively playing.
Placement	Notice where Ponti places his most significant revelations—are they at chapter openings, midpoints, or endings? Discuss how the placement of a revelation changes its emotional impact on the reader.
Form	Art Attack follows the conventions of middle grade mystery while bending them through its ensemble cast and undercover framing—discuss what genre expectations Ponti fulfills and which ones he subverts, and what those choices say about form as a creative decision.
Dummy	As a third installment in a series, this book must orient new readers while rewarding returning ones—examine the first chapter and identify every piece of information Ponti plants to catch new readers up without boring fans of the series.
Passion	Ponti's evident enthusiasm for street art culture, Miami, and the craft of mystery writing pulses through every chapter—have students identify one passage where the author's own passion feels most present, and discuss how a writer's genuine interest shapes the energy of a text.

Pace-Write It!

In Art Attack, Funky Munky communicates an entire identity through a single stylized tag. Writers do the same thing—in just a few words, a great opening line or a perfectly placed detail tells readers who you are and why they should keep reading. For this 20-minute Pace-Write-It! activity, you will design and write your own 'literary tag': a short, punchy, three-sentence story opening that encodes your writer's identity. Step 1 (5 minutes): Think about the mystery you would investigate in your own school or neighborhood if you were in the Sherlock Society. Jot down: What is the mystery? Where does it happen? Who is your undercover character? Step 2 (10 minutes): Write your three-sentence opening. Sentence 1 must drop readers directly into action or place—no 'My name is' or 'One day.' Sentence 2 must reveal one specific, surprising detail about the setting or situation. Sentence 3 must end with a question, a cliffhanger, or a line that makes it impossible not to read what comes next. Step 3 (5 minutes): Share your three-sentence opening with a partner. Your partner's job is to identify: Which sentence has the strongest voice? Which detail felt most specific and alive? What question does the opening make them want answered? Revise one word or punctuation mark based on what you hear.