Octavia Spencer to Publish Middle-Grade Series With Simon & Schuster

Posted on October 16, 2012

Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer (The Help) has signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Octavia will publish a middle-grade series about Randi Rhodes, a young ninja detective. The first book of the two-book series, Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit, will be published in Fall 2013.

Randi Rhodes is an unusual 12-year-old Brooklyn vigilante with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Rnadi's life takes a turn for the worse when her mother passes away and her father moves to the small sleepy town of Deer Creek, Tennessee. Randi is miserable until a new mystery arises: the town's two-hundred-year-old time capsule, which is rumored to contain hidden treasure, inexplicably disappears. Randi must solve the case, as the small town's fate hangs in the balance.

Octavia said in a statement, "I want to take young readers on a sleuthing adventure. Growing up I was a huge fan of mysteries like Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown, and my biggest hope is that after meeting these young detectives, kids will experience the same sense of magic I felt when solving my first mystery."

Photo: Simon & Schuster