The Fete Escape

by Christina Miesen

An Aussie Bites book by Penguin. Australian, Junior. Paperback RRP $12.95

Guest Reviewer Jo Burnell

Susie Murphy (also known as Sooz) loves the Peppercorn Primary School fete. She spends the year dreaming of all the fun she’ll have there. Her mum is on the Committee to organise it. Correction. Her Mum is the Committee. It never bothered Sooz before, but this year is different.
The reason for Mum’s panic and Suzie’s meltdown is inside a large cardboard box. The school Mascot, Pepper the Rat comes in two varieties: a living pet and a costume that smells worse than dead. Suzie can’t stand either.

A rollercoaster of mishaps and dilemmas follow. Will Pepper ever be found? (Does Sooz actually want to find him?) Can Gramps manage to save the day, or is Sooz doomed to watch all the fun from behind giant whiskers? No fete is complete without hair-raising rides, lots of yummy food and a cake competition, but things will go wrong when you’re stuck inside a stinky rat costume.

Christina’s characters are quirky, but realistic. That’s why The Fete Escape is so much fun. Emily Snell is an aspiring actor who plays dress-ups for practice. Little brother Ben scours the fete grounds with a metal detector, hoping to get rich; Mum is at her frantic best while Dad tries his best to soothe Mum’s nerves.

The Fete Escape is a perfect read for anyone who has ever had fun at a fete. It’s also an invitation to come along for those who have never been.

Polar Boy

by Sandy Fussell

Walker Books. Australian, Junior. Paperback, RRP $14.95

Guest Reviewer Jo Burnell

Can you imagine a world without mobile phones, TV’s and microwaves? How about one without cars, bikes or even skateboards? Now, take away electricity and air conditioning and come to the Arctic Circle.

Welcome to Iluak’s world in the thirteenth century. Iluak is just like most boys his age, with a best friend and an annoying little sister. He doesn’t want to hear about responsibilities. Can’t we just keep having fun? Apart from the absence of modern gadgets, things are very different. Darkness is a comfort. The White holds life-threatening dangers and Iluak has been chosen to face them in order to save his people. Whether he likes it or not, Iluak isn’t alone in his attempt to overcome the unthinkable, several times over.

Nana’s ability to see into the future and talk with the spirits of the dead causes more troubles for her grandson. Tuaq’s sneering condescension and Finn’s silent faithfulness pulsate from the pages. An unpredictable kid sister just makes things more complicated. Girls!

Sandy Fussell has a knack of embedding wisdom within and between characters. She does it again in Polar Boy. No wonder this is short-listed for the CBCA Book of the Year. Bravery, loyalty and justice, come face to face with raw strength and aggression, but will Iluak’s people survive? Melting ice and dwindling food supplies are the least of their worries.

Polar Boy is a fast-paced action adventure. It digs deeper to uncover timeless truths and dilemmas that face people of all ages. Extra twists keep the action rolling from beginning to end.

A must-read.

http://www.sandyfussell.com/

We Don’t Live Here Anymore

by Matt Nable

Penguin Australia. Australian, Adult Other. Paperback rrp $32.95

We Don’t Live Here Anymore is all about relationships. Real, normal, down-to-earth relationships! But that doesn’t mean the story is boring or mundane, in fact, the drama behind these relationships kept me rapidly turning page over page.

Charlie Hudson is a bit weird and as a young awkward teenager he gets beaten by some local bullies whilst on the annual family holiday at the beach. When Tess Bailey comes to his rescue his life is set on a course that he never seems to be able to control… until he is older and wiser. And Tess’s kiss is what lingers in his thoughts every day, subtle, just wavering on the surface of his conscious.

Every character has their own chapters within this book and every chapter has a story to tell. All are touched by Charlie in some way or other. The stories jump from past to present to future and back again with a great ease. With each chapter under my belt, my knowledge of why the characters have been shaped the way they have gradually and tantalisingly increases.

Charlie’s father, brother, mother, next-door-neighbours, the boy that bashes him, his father’s boss and Tess are all entwined. Their stories could be about everyday people. The famous ex-footballer whose son just doesn’t have the same calibre; the man that spends half his life trying to forget a teenager’s mistake; or the girl that leaves the small town to make it big in the city.

If you like real-life puzzles and want a book to draw you in, then We Don’t Live Here Anymore will live up to your expectations. I loved it and look forward to more of Nable’s writing.

When No-one’s Looking: On the Farm

by Zana Fraillon & Lucia Masciullo

Hardie Grant Egmont. Australian, Picture, Young Reader. Hardcover rrp $24.95.

For an adult with a vivid imagination When No-one’s Looking: On the Farm was a fun read with my young boy. We both tried to picture what was behind the folded page, but neither of us guessed any right! We had fun trying though and laughed and laughed and laughed. My son especially liked the dogs in the hot air balloon with one dangling in a rescue ring underneath.

One of the intriguing features of this book is how it captures what we have all, at one stage of our lives, tried to imagine. What do the animals on the farm do when we aren’t looking? And what about when the fridge door is closed … does the light really go out?

I’ve often wondered whether pigs could fly and Masciullo has certainly captured a different angle on that one!

This is a great lift-and-reveal picture book with wonderful funny illustrations. An excellent book for every young imaginative child - the message is loud and clear - don’t believe everything anyone tells you!

Fraillon and Masciullo have teamed up also for When No-one’s Looking: At the Zoo. I can only imagine!

Half Way to Good

by Kirsten Murphy

Penguin. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $19.95

Half Way to Good is the story of 17 year-old Luke, your typical Australian Year 11 high school student. It is also about Anna, a graduate teacher beginning her career at a Catholic school. Their stories are intertwined together in a way that would cause most kids and teachers to cringe. Anna is one of Luke’s teachers and also the sister of his older brother’s girlfriend. They see each other outside of school!

Luke is suffering bouts of unease and depression because his father is ill, his mother sad and his older brother always around. Anna is suffering from being the “new” teacher, being just a bit older than her students, having another teacher determined to make her life difficult and on top of all that, her ex boyfriend, whom she vowed never to be hurt by ever again, wants her back.

Anna and Luke help each other with their problems but can they help themselves?

Half Way to Good isn’t about being on your best behaviour but about getting to know yourself. Anna and Luke are familiar characters which makes them very easy to relate to. This is a universal story of a teenager and his teacher. Told in dual narrative format it is an entertaining book that your average adolescent and beyond will love.

Murphy’s second novel The King of Whatever won the 2006 Children’s Peace Prize for Literature and was named a notable book in the 2006 Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award. I can see Half Way to Good up there too.

This is the Mud

by Kathryn Apel. Illustrated by Warren Crossett

Hachette Children’s Books. Australian, Picture. RRP $28.99 hardback, $16.99 softcover

Sometimes with a picture book, I find it hard to decide where to begin. Do I talk text or illustration? Do I tell the story? With This is the Mud, the answer is obvious. I start right at the front, with the cover and its quirky bottom-first view of the sad, soulful cow stuck in the mud. It’s an image to make the reader smile and promises a fun, mud-spattering read.

Based on the familiar, thumping rhythm of The House that Jack Built, This is the Mud is a text that demands to be read aloud. With pomp and emphasis! With oomph, emotion and expression! I had a stirring time doing exactly that.

The is the cow who was chewing her cud,
as she went for a drink and got stuck in the mud.

The story is a universal one. The cow rescued by a team of people – the girl who raises the alarm, the dad, the neighbour with the tractor and the woman on the two-way radio. The farm could be anywhere but the occasional clue, such as ‘ute’ places it in rural Australia, a landscape author Kathryn Apel calls home.

Warren Crossett’s vivid pictures provide action, humour and confirmation that this is a picture book ‘proud to be Australian.’ The splodges of mud containing landscape reflections are an interesting graphic feature on some pages of text. My favourite illustration, other than the cover of course, is the poor cow unceremoniously and inelegantly plucked from the mud by a sling around her middle. Still, she was glad to be rescued and in the end is happily chewing her cud again.

This is the Mud is a wonderful read-aloud, rhyme-along, imagine-the-mess book. And it’s lots of fun.

http://katswhiskers-thewritestuff.blogspot.com/

Don’t judge a girl by her cover

by Ally Carter

Hachette Australia. Young Adult, Mystery. Paperback rrp $16.99

I have been waiting anxiously for the third book in the Gallagher Girls series, Don’t judge a girl by her cover. The first two books were excellent reads.

Don’t judge a girl by her cover continues on with the story of four friends who attend the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, Cammie, Macey, Bex and Liz. It’s a school for spies. Cammie is the Principal’s daughter and likes to get into trouble. But this time trouble seems to be following Cammie.

Cammie visits Macey who is on the political trail with her family (her father is running for the Vice Presidency of the United States), and together they thwart a potential political kidnapping of Macey. But why her? Has Macey’s father done something illegal or bad or has it got something to do with The Gallagher Academy?

Cammie and Macey, with the help of Bex and Liz, find that the pieces don’t add up and the target may not be who they think. The people hunting them may not be what they seem.

To add fuel to the confusion of Cammie’s problems, Zach, the spy boy that kissed her then disappeared in book 2 Cross my heart and hope to spy, has returned.

I am a big fan of The Gallagher Girl series and Carter’s writing is more exciting with each new book. I hope I don’t have to wait as long for Book 4 otherwise I will have withdrawal symptoms from the sort of exciting life that I will never live! At least I get to read about it.

I’d tell you I love you, but then I’d have to kill you and Cross my heart and hope to spy were reviewed in Issues 11 and 16 respectively.

http://www.thegallaghergirls.com/
http://www.gallaghergirlsseries.com/
http://www.allycarter.com/

Grug

by Ted Prior

Simon & Schuster. Australian, Picture, Young Reader. Paperback rrp $4.99

Grug is a squat hairy sort of thing with a nose, two eyes, a mouth, hands and feet and he was born from the top of a Burrawang tree.

This year he is turning 30 and to celebrate this auspicious occasion, Simon & Schuster have re-released the Grug books. With over a million copies sold in Australia it is easy to see that Grug is special. He’s so popular that when I tell others I have just re-read Grug they are transported back to their childhood with memories of being dressed up as him or reading his stories over and over again.

Well now another couple of generations can enjoy what us “older” generations have been lucky enough to have had . . . Grug! And more Grug. There are 25 stories in all.

My Sister the Vampire – Switched

by Sienna Mercer

Hardie Grant Egmont. Junior, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $15.99

The flyer for this book suggests My Sister the Vampire as appropriate for the younger population not quite ready for the Twilight series. I agree wholeheartedly. My Sister the Vampire is an enthralling read and pre-teens will love it.

When Olivia moves to a new school she is feeling a bit nervous on fitting in. But she is a great cheerleader and helps her settle in with the type of girls she has always been friends with. She has nothing to worry about.

Until the day she meets her twin sister.

Olivia and Ivy were adopted by separate families at the age of one. Neither remembers anything about each other or their real parents. Looking identical is the only thing they have in common - that and the unusual ring they both possess.

Ivy is a Goth. Whereas Olivia wears pink and a tan, Ivy wears black and her skin shines beneath the moon. But Olivia and Ivy find that they can help each other in times of trouble. Switching places has never been easier until Olivia discovers the secret Ivy has been hiding. Ivy seems to have forgotten to tell Olivia that she is a Vampire. Could Olivia be one too?

My Sister the Vampire - Switched is not only a story about finding your feet in new circumstances, but also those ever popular teenage girl issues - such as boy crushes, keeping secrets, what to wear and how to organise a “killer” ball! Look out for the next three books in this series, Fangtastic, Revamped! and Vampalicious.

Free to a Good Home

by Colin Thompson

Random House Australia. Australian, Young Reader, Junior, Australian. Paperback rrp $24.95

Some children bring home stray animals? But what would happen if your children brought home an old lady?

This beautiful and quirky story answers that question when the Smith family end up sharing their home and their lives with an old lady.

But the Smith children, Peter and Sally, collected an old lady.
They found her at the shopping mall and took her home with them.

Not only do the Smith’s gain a “granny” who can cook, clean, look after the children and repair things but the old lady gets a family who delight in her cooking and cleaning and love her just as she is.

I was jealous reading this book. My children’s grandparents all live far away and we don’t have the luxury of a “granny” in our house. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if my children brought home a “granny”?

Thompson’s illustrations are eye-catching and quirky. Free to a Good Home not only is a book to read but it is a wonderful artistic picture book that you just want to pick up and look through – so many things on every page to see. Great story, brilliant pictures, great idea!

Colin Thompson has won a number of awards. His novel How to Live Forever won an Aurealis Award and The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley won the 2006 CBC Picture Book of the Year. The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness has been shortlisted for the 2009 Children’s Book Council Award for Best Picture Book.

http://www.colinthompson.com/

The Phoenix Files: arrival

by Chris Morphew


Hardie Grant Egmont. Australian, Junior, Young Adult, Science Fiction. Paperback rrp $16.95

Not many books leave me totally frustrated at the end but The Phoenix Files: arrival did just that! Frustration plus! It has the best cliff hanger ending I have read in a long time and I am itching to get the next instalment.

After his parents split up, Luke Hunter and his mother move to Phoenix. It’s a small Australian town, somewhere out in the middle of nowhere – well so Luke thinks. His mum has been given a really great new job and his she thinks that it could be good for Luke too after the recent family problems. Luke is 15 years of age and just wants to be a teenager. He also still wants to see his father, or at least speak with him.

Phoenix isn’t an ordinary town. First, everything is new – the buildings, the school, the shops. Then there are no cars – everyone rides bicycles. And if that isn’t strange enough - no television, no telephones (that work) and no internet (but there is an intranet). There is also no police force, just a private security detail.

Luke quickly meets new friends, Peter and Jordan. Peter was one of the first students to arrive at Phoenix school. Jordan is not happy about being in Phoenix and she is the second last student to arrive. Just before Luke.

At the end of Luke’s first day, Luke and Jordan receive half each of a coded message from a mysterious source. When Peter finally decodes the message the three friends realise the true sinister purpose of Phoenix and Shackleton Cooperative, the company that built the town from the ground up less than a year before.

Luke, Peter and Jordan have only 100 days to try and solve the puzzle to help civilisation survive. But who can they trust?

The Phoenix Files: arrival is the first 12 days and there are five more books to be released over the next few months. Be prepared for a great story, a great plot with heaps of twists and as I said before, a nail-biting cliff hanger of an ending! Hurry up Mr Morphew, I only have 88 days to go but I don’t like waiting…

http://www.thephoenixfiles.info/phoenix_flashsite.html

http://chrismorphew.blogspot.com/

Marsh Island

by Sonya Spreen Bates. Illustrated by Kasia Charko


Orca Book Publishers. Junior. Paperback rrp $6.95

Marsh Island is only 50 pages long. But don’t be fooled into thinking that this short read is chicken feathers! There’s nothing light-weight about the plot. Marsh Island has a storyline that will keep young readers engrossed right up to the very last page.

Jake and his younger brother Tommy are camping on Marsh Island with their father. Jake wishes Tommy wasn’t there. It was supposed to be a first time experience for just him and his father but Tommy whined until dad gave in.

When Jake tries to scare Tommy everything goes wrong. With the story of old Alfred Marsh going mad and escaping to Marsh Island fresh in the young boys’ minds, Jake and Tommy find themselves running away from something dark and strange in the woods.

Black and white illustrations throughout the book help to bring the mystery to life.

For children who baulk at reading thick tomes Marsh Island is an excellent choice.

http://sonyaspreenbates.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/welcome-to-sonyas-website/
http://www.charko.com/

Smart Babies Series

Little bush babies

Mummy’s little zoo babies

black dog books. Picture, Australian, Board Book rrp $9.99 each

These two recent titles in the Smart Babies series of board books continue to delight and entertain the youngest of ‘readers’.

Little bush babies is a showcase of photos of baby Australian animals doing the things children do every day. The turtle: I play in the sandpit and my favourite, the Tasmanian Devil with his mouth wide open and ferocious teeth showing: I yawn.

Mummy’s little zoo babies looks at the baby animals found at the zoo. All the favourites are there – tigers, monkeys and zebras, with a few not so quite well known– like meerkats and skunks.

The binding and thick pages passed my personal toddler-tough test with flying colours. These excellent, high quality board books would make a great first birthday gift.

The Secret Ministry of Frost

by Nick Lake

Simon & Schuster. Junior, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $16.99

I’ll declare my biases up front. I am an avid fantasy reader. I’ve been fascinated by stories about the icebound Poles since I was in primary school. My dream travel destination is Alaska and I love stories of ancient peoples where myth and magic so easily overlap.

But even before I knew how many of my personal biases boxes The Secret Ministry of Frost had ticked, I was hooked by the cover - stark black and white Inuit motifs with a few sinister splotches of red. Set against a white background speckled with broken geometric holograms, the cover shimmers like snow.

The story I found inside was even more unique. Light is a wealthy, albino, half-Inuit girl whose father is an Arctic explorer. When he disappears, the stories and creatures of Inuit myth come to life around her. Light soon learns her father is still alive and needs her help. Accompanied by her butler (never whom he seemed to be even before the strange happenings began), Shadow (a spirit from inside the house walls) and Tupilak (a half shark creature of the sea), Light sails for Nunavut to rescue her father. The plot thickens. Her father is held captive by the evil being, Frost who wants to destroy the world.

I didn’t like the ending but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the narrative or my enthusiasm to recommend this book. My disappointment was a reflection of how immersed I had become in the story and how unpredictable its plot turns are. A tale which easily blurs the boundaries of readership age, this book will appeal to primary, young adult and adult readers alike. I loved it.

My Baby Love

by Meredith Costain. Illustrated by Beatriz Martin Vidal

Hachette Children’s Books. Picture, Book, Australian. Hardcover rrp $29.99

Where to begin? Word or pictures? This is a finely balanced book where text and illustration take it in turn to lead the reader through a celebration of motherhood.

The cover is a striking background of pink with a white tree and small green birds. Overlaid in a thick almost rice paper style transparency, is an image of mother and child, leaning comfortable into a branch of the tree. It’s beautiful and I opened the book with great expectation.

I was greeted by the child of the morning, lifted on origami crane wings, towards the mother’s arms. On the following page the world turned yellow, balloons carried the child aloft to play. The blue of bath time and bubbles followed:

Splash with me, my baby wish,
My slippery, slithery, soap-bubbled fish.
One two three-ee.

As the day progresses, not only the colour of the scene changes but also the physical depiction of the mother and child. Each page feels special and a little exotic – almost Japan, almost Africa, almost Nordic – but always every mother and child. The illustrations emphasise the universality of the text.

The rhymes are gentle, filled with the love and affection shared by mother and child. Read aloud at bedtime, this book is a reinforcement of the loving bond binding the day together. And finally it is time for the child to sleep. Here the match of colour to mood and time of day is my favourite. The child drifts off into a welcoming world of grey green shadows.

Can I sum this book up in three words? Yes, that’s easy.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Costain’s A Year in Girl Hell: Crushed was reviewed in Issue 19.

http://www.meredithcostain.com/

My two husbands

by Kathy Golski

Penguin Group. Australian, Biographical. Paperback rrp $32.95

Kathy Golski is an Australian artist who fell in love and married a young Polish migrant, Olek. They had three children and their life was interesting and full. The story could end right there with the words “and they lived happily ever after”, but a different ending was about to be written.

Kathy lost Olek when she was in her 30’s. He was killed instantly when the bike he was riding to a friend’s place in Canberra, collided with a car. Kathy later married the friend, Voy and had a fourth child with him.

Now in her 60’s, My two husbands is Kathy’s story of her life with the two men that together influenced her from her late teenage years until now.

Kathy came from an Australian middle class suburban family and ended up becoming Katush, Katya and Kot, a woman integrated into the Polish migrant way of life.

From the moment she fell in love with Olek, Kathy’s life was transformed . His parents were old fashioned Polish people and his pushy mother taught Kathy how to cook and keep Olek happy. For Olek, life was an adventure and he passed this attitude to his three young children and his wife.

Olek and his parents escaped two Nazi concentration camps and lived out the Hitler regime in the forests of Europe with a Partisan camp. Olek’s father was a dentist and this special skill saved the families life time after time during these years.

My two husbands is not just the story of Kathy and her two husbands but her family and the interesting tales their lives have to tell. Kathy relates her life as though she is talking with Olek, letting him know what is happening. This is a comfortable book. One to be enjoyed with a cup of tea, some polish food and gypsy music playing in the background.

The Wizard of Rondo

by Emily Rodda


Scholastic. Australian, Junior. Hardback rrp $29.95

Guest Reviewer Jo Burnell

I don’t like fantasy as a rule. I figure there’s enough drama in everyday life without imagining extra difficulties. Then again, I’d never read anything by Emily Rodda.

From the first Chapter, quirky characters leapt from the page and dragged me with them on the adventure of a lifetime. Emily establishes new characters with ease in a few short lines. These characters are three-dimensional. I have no doubts about what they are likely to do and what would be out of character.

Cooking pot is really a spoilt child that whinges until it is carried everywhere. Flying carpet is full of mischief until put in its place and the owner of the camping shop turns into a bear every night.

Leo and Mimi are able to travel back and forth from the real world to Rondo. Leo’s music box transports them while Mimi’s locket directs where they land. There are mysteries to solve, villains to avoid and heroic quests to complete.

The locket is really a Key when it is in Rondo. It possesses greater powers than the children understand, powers that the evil Blue Queen covets. Leo, Mimi and their friends must be careful not to let the key fall into the Queen’s hands. The last time she got hold of it, the whole of Rondo was plunged into an era of great darkness.

If I had one wish, it would be that I had the paperback version of this book. I’m in danger of a broken nose as the arms weaken from holding the book above my head in bed for too long. I just can’t find a boring spot that lets me put the book down.

The Wizard of Rondo is a perfect pick for anyone in Upper Primary School, but kids of all sizes (including adults) will love it too. The constant sprinkling of the slightly ridiculous throughout keeps a smile on the face despite dangerous predicaments. No wonder it is short-listed for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award (Upper Primary).

http://www.emilyrodda.com/

The Stranding

by Karen Viggers


Allen & Unwin. Australian, Romance, Adult Other. Paperback rrp $32.95

Everyone has a past. And in the small town of Merrigan, a coastal village down the south of New South Wales, it seems that there are a lot of ‘ghosts’ in people’s closets.

Lex Henderson escapes Sydney to peaceful Merrigan, running away from his past and his own private ghosts. But what Lex finds is a community that won’t let you dissolve, disappear and fade into the beautiful scenery. Then again, does Lex really want to be ignored and forgotten?

At first, Lex stays close to his isolated beach house at the Point overlooking the wild sea and land. His favourite company are the bottles kept under the sink. The locals want to know more about Lex and Lex slowly finds he wants to know more about the locals, especially Callista. Callista has her own demons and keeps important secrets from Lex.

When, on a particular ugly and wild night, Lex and Callista save Lex’s elderly neighbour from the sea, Callista finds her passion for painting goes into overdrive and Lex finds his attitude to his new community has completely changed. Where once he wanted to be remote and aloof, now he wants to belong.

Callista and Lex’s relationship is mirrored in the ocean. Their passion is as volatile as the waves thrashing against the rocks but it also has a solid depth, as beautiful and graceful as the large whales that pass by the coastline.

When a whale is stranded on a lonely and remote beach, Lex and Callista finally recognise the truth about themselves and their relationship. What happens to the whale further cements the inevitability of the days to come.

The Stranding is much more than a romance. It fits well in a number of genres. I have suggested that my husband would love this book. It is about power, love, death and what nature can bring to the table! Now when I look out to sea and watch the whales pass by, I see hope and beauty and something so graceful I am lost for words.

The Walk Right In Detective Agency Series

Book 1: Open For Business
Book 1: High Crime in Milk Bay

by Moya Simons

Walker Books. Australian, Junior. Paperback rrp $14.95

Guest Reviewer Jo Burnell

Both Open for Business and High Crime in Milk Bay were short listed in the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award (Upper Primary). There are several good reasons.

Both books are fast-paced and funny. Mischief is indeed afoot. In Open for Business, David and Bernice set up the ‘Walk Right In’ Detective Agency. With each mystery solved, their business grows. Bernice is the creative thinker, David the facts man. He tells the story from his uniquely male point of view. His quirky way of describing things will have girls hooked too.

The mysteries in Book 1 are not life threatening. The reader joins the budding detectives on a fun-filled rollercoaster without too much danger lurking in the shadows. This is the perfect beginning to an enjoyable series. The characters are every day kids with common dilemmas that need sorting. David and Bernice’s challenge is to find ways of fixing things to everyone’s satisfaction and make money as well if they can.

There’s a twinkle in my eye as I’m unable to resist turning the pages. Plenty of hints on how to record observations and join seemingly unrelated clues make the story speed by. I love the double twist at the end.

In High Crime in Milk Bay, the stakes are raised. Is David imagining things or is a serious crime being committed under his parents’ noses? Does David have superior observation skills or an over active imagination? David and Bernice bicker at times, but they are a close-knit team. The mystery in this book can’t be solved without the two of them, but are lives really at stake in sleepy Milk Bay? The suspense compels page-turning.

Both books are short easy reads but full of ideas for budding detectives. It’s hard not to notice potential clues in every day life when the books are set aside.

http://www.moyasimons.com/