The Perplexing Pineapple: The Cryptic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno (and Alberta) Book 1 (Ursula Dubosarsky, puzzles and illus by Terry Denton, A&U)

Individually, Terry Denton and Ursula Dubosarsky are so beloved by children and adults that they’ll no doubt attract a fanbase for this new series before it even hits the shelves. The Perplexing Pineapple is the first case for Alberta and her cousin Coco Carlomagno, the Chief of Police in Buenos Aires. Coco is an easily startled guinea pig, so when a giant floating pineapple starts to appear outside his window each day, accompanied by strange shouting and cackling, he knows that it’s time to ask for Alberta’s help. This bite-sized book makes an excellent transitional book for readers starting to make their way into the unfamiliar and perhaps slightly daunting world of chapter books. Where many chapter books use illustrations simply as a way to break up the text or to aid the transition from picture books, many of the illustrations in this book are puzzles that will encourage readers to become involved in the story. Dubosarsky has a truly playful way with words, which is spot on for this age group (six- to eight-year-olds). The puzzles by Terry Denton are a lot of fun—if anything readers may be disappointed that there are too few of them.

Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne-based writer and reviewer

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Category: Reviews