Marsh Road Mysteries: Diamonds and Daggers - Review

Author: Elen Caldecott

Title: Marsh Road Mysteries: Diamonds and Daggers

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: February 2015

Heart-warming and appealing to all ages, award-winning children’s author, Elen Caldecott, delivers through amusing idioms and clever writing a story that is read with a smile in the form of Marsh Road Mysteries: Diamonds and Daggers.

Excitement stirs for the residents of Marsh Road as they await the arrival of Hollywood actress, Betty Massimo. Piotr and his friends, Minnie and Andrew, are amongst those desperate to catch a glimpse of the celebrity star but disaster soon strikes when Betty’s diamond necklace is stolen and Piotr’s Dad has become the prime suspect in the case. Piotr faces a race against time to keep himself from being forced to follow his father back to Poland and it is up to him and his friends to solve the mystery of who stole Betty Massimo’s diamonds.

Diamonds and Daggers possesses a welcome nostalgic throwback to Enid Blyton’s popular children detective series of yesteryear such as the classical favourites Secret Seven, the Five Find Outers and the Famous Five. While not as complex or as detailed as the afore mentioned, the plot is easy to follow and the self-appointed amateur detectives display a strong bond of friendship and impulsive innocence through their highly likeable characters in an entertaining tale which leaves you guessing throughout who the thief’s true identity is.

The first instalment of her first fiction series, Elen Caldecott’s Diamonds and Daggers, is a strong foundation to Marsh Road Mysteries, which is certain to become a much beloved children’s series for years to come.

You can learn more about Elen Caldecott, her previous books and the Marsh Road Mysteries at www.elencaldecott.com.

The Earth is Singing - Review

Author: Vanessa Curtis

Title: The Earth is Singing

Publisher: Usborne

Published: January 2015

Based on the true story of the Jews of Riga, ‘The Earth is Singing’ is author, Vanessa Curtis’, captivating song of love, loss and survival written to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Holocaust Memorial Day.

The Nazis have invaded Latvia and overthrown the Soviet Union and what starts as hope of liberation for the nation becomes a brutal new world for any Latvian Jew. Told through the innocent eyes of fifteen year old Hanna Michelson, her memory of a warm life living with her Jewish family where she aspires to become a dancer is slowly starting to crumble piece by piece to unveil a harsh new cold reality where the only objective is to survive.

Hanna lives with her protective mother and feisty grandmother while longing for her father to return after he was taken away. The growing restrictions have made seeing her boyfriend Uldis hard and the threat of moving to the ghetto with 30,000 other Jews looms over her family’s head.

Award-winning author, Vanessa Curtis, has retold a harrowing tale through a beautifully written story. Hanna, at times, can come across as quite naive to the growing horrors occurring around her but ‘The Earth is Singing’ contains a sense of disheartening inevitability for the characters, which is dramatized even more by Hanna’s innocence. Her and her family undergo a series of transpiring events that pull you in to share in their hope that they make the right choices to continue living.

The Battle for WondLa - Review

Author: Tony DiTerlizzi

Title: The Battle for WondLa

Publisher: Simon and Shuster (HBK)

Published: 2014

The future holds a mysterious world and Tony DiTerlizzi wields the full extent of his imagination to bring us on a spell-bounding adventure. What we knew as Earth is now Orbona and it is no longer ruled by the humans who are fighting for a place in this new world filled with alien immigrants.

12 year old heroine Eva Nine and her reluctant companion, Hailey Turner, are on a quest to stay alive long enough to stop the powerful and sinister Arsian being, Loroc, from overthrowing the Ojo royal family and claiming power. Each page turned brings you deeper into a compelling story filled with hope, betrayal, friendship, and a fight for survival for Eva Nine and her friends against seemingly impossible odds.

The artistic brilliance of DiTerlizzi is conveyed not just through his words but with illustrations with each one providing a visual glimpse of the unusual characters and the strange world that Eva Nine and her companions are navigating through. The book also contains a glossary, a map, and even the Orbonian alphabet.

The Battle for WondLa is the third instalment in Tony DiTerlizzi’s WondLa trilogy and it is highly recommended that you read The Search for WondLa and A Hero for WondLa before preparing for battle. Despite the available glossary, to fling straight in will leave you initially struggling to come to terms with the commonplace terminology but once you do, prepare to be captivated in Eva Nine’s engrossing adventure in this modern day classic.