Stephen Pastis has used character and style to create a story about an overly confident eleven-year-old who “runs” his own detective agency. Readers may not relate to the detective side of the story, but they will relate to Timmy Failure’s language and humorous reflection on the world around him. Pastis reveals Timmy’s strengths (his vocabulary and imagination) and his weaknesses (he’s clueless and not intrinsically motivated). The reader is able to identify with Timmy and enjoy jumping into his world of mistakes. In addition to character, Pastis’s style keeps the reader engaged through the use of simplistic drawings and a humorous tone. The drawings are Timmy’s visual representations of what he’s writing about in his detective journal.
