PD McPem's Agency for Mysterious Mysteries: The baffling beach bandit by Anna Battese. Illus. by Ruth-Mary Smith

This is the third book in an early chapter book series about PD McPem and her detective abilities. Today PD is unable take her beloved puppy Scooter on a beach excursion with her class as all pets are banned from her school after an unexpected event in a previous PD McPem book called The Puzzling Pet Parade.

Arriving at the beach, the class find that the boats are all sunk so they need to find something to do. PD, her friends and Grandpa discover that something has ruined a picnic for some beach goers and Mr Li’s ice creams have had a bite taken out of them and his bike bell is missing. Lots of mysteries for Detective PD Pem and her crew to solve. After some careful gathering of clues, the mysterious culprit is uncovered, and with some help from the adults the children are able to enjoy their beach excursion.

The generous spacing of text and the use of short sentences and paragraphs as well as intermittent illustrations throughout, make this an ideal read for those children who are learning to independently read early chapter books. These gentle and engaging stories are full of friendship, problem solving and fun.

Themes: Friends, Mysteries, Beach Excursion, Detective Skills.

Kathryn Beilby