Lexie Moon & the word burgling bungle by Melissa Garside and Lauren Mullinder

Lexie Moon and her Grandad are always making inventions, mostly to help people or solve a problem but when Lexie creates The Vocaliser on her own things start to go wrong.  With the Inventor’s Guild competition coming up, Gizmo Lightfinger, the infamous gadget thief who has a lifetime ban from the Guild, is on the loose and stealing gadgets all over town. 

After The Vocaliser is stolen, and Gizmo renames it The Word Grabber 9000, Lexie and her Grandad are determined to stop the thief and prevent a disaster. Lexie is a charming character that many readers will relate to. 

Lexie’s story is told in short chapters with fun illustrations that draw the reader in and make this 'unputdownable'.  Lexie and her Grandad are instantly likeable, and their relationship and love of inventions really shine though, as does the evil genius of Gizmo. This book will appeal to newly independent readers who have a love for the quirky. The language used in the story makes this a great book for a classroom read aloud especially when looking at linguistics and the depth of language that can be included in short stories. 

This is a book that will become a favourite and I hope that there are more books with Lexie and her inventions in the future as it was so enjoyable to read.

Themes: Inventions, Family, Crime, Adventure.

Mhairi Alcorn