Member Reviews

This is another book in a great series by Courtney Carbone. Violet the Mermaid and Wally the Narwhal are the Undersea Mystery Club. They work together to solve crimes. With the use of brainstorming, observation and hypothesizing, they try to determine who and is painting graffiti all over Aquamarina and why. This is a great introduction to mysteries as well as chapter books. It is an engaging read with delightful illustrations! Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

Was this review helpful?

Undersea Mystery Club brings to you the case of the puzzling paintings on the walls in the sea-town named Aquamarina. The graffiti, first spotted on the wall of an elementary school on the first day after summer vacations, soon is found on other government building too, like the Aquamarine Library.
Someone is clearly being naughty in Aquamarina! Ruining government buildings by painting over them sounds like a plan of the most mischievous person of the town. Who is he? Let's find out!

Inspection
The local police- the Dolphins, are already inspecting the case. But looks like our protagonist -Violet- is more excited to solve the mystery. And why not? She loves sleuthing and she has experience in solving little cases too. And looking at her brainstorming sessions and her eagerness to collect evidences, it looks like she might solve this case anytime.
But things aren't too easy for her. Because there is a suspect who looks both mischievous and innocent at the same time! Wanna know about him? Well, take up the book, and you won't be disappointed to meet him!!!

Who will unravel the mystery?
We have two groups looking for the culprit.
1. The local police
2. Violet and her friend
Who will reach to the culprit first? Not only that, who will find the correct culprit? Dive in the book to find out!!

Let's create beauty!
The book will introduce the little children to beautiful things of life- like friendship, care, togetherness, and the kindest thing to do- welcoming and accepting new people.

Let's read!
Undersea Mystery Club is for every child. Why? Let's find out:
1. Easy to follow- the short sentences and easy language is all that a child needs.
2. Illustration😍- Illustrations are a child's favourite part of any book. And the illustrations here are exciting! Who won't like to see a fantastic underwater world with different water creatures- we have fish, dolphins, octopus, starfish and narwhals. You can choose your favourite creature in the book.
3. Explanations- The book provides some explanatory pages at the back of the book to help a lost child understand about the new concepts that he might find in the book.
4. Excitement- Who doesn't like mysteries and finding clues exciting? Everyone, I'm sure.

There is more to the book! Look up for the title in the bookstores to explore the book yourself.

Was this review helpful?

I really enjoyed this story and the illustration were just lovely!

The book was easy to read and follow and it had a lovely flow to it.

I thought that the characters were good, I liked how they worked together and came to a great resolution after they solved the mystery too - I will admit as a adult it was pretty predictable but for the age range it should be absolutely fine!

It is 4 stars from me for this one - a great story, well written and with some lovely characters!

Highly recommended!

Was this review helpful?

This is a great series for primary students (age 8 or 9) in an early chapter book series. Violet the mermaid and Wally the narwhal make up the Undersea Mystery Club and they get together to solve a crime or situation. It is a fun way to introduce mysteries to young children by brainstorming and hypothesizing, evaluating each hypothesis, and finally observation. In this story, someone is painting graffiti all over Aquamarina. The police see it as a crime, Violet and Wally want to find out who is doing it and why. Talking it out and remembering what they had seen earlier in the day, they figured out what happened. There is also a new character in this story, an octopus named Ollie, who just wants to make friends and be welcomed to town. This is a cute early reader mystery with delightful illustrations and a fun story. The characters are interesting with human characteristics. There is friendship, curiosity, intelligence and fun. This was a simple mystery that was solved. I like that there is both a female character (mermaid) and a male (narwhal) so it will appeal to both boys and girls. The back of the book includes some general information about things from the story, in this case graffiti, murals and artists to encourage further investigation. I recommend this series for schools and classroom libraries or even family libraries.

Was this review helpful?

this was a cute read, the characters were great and I really loved the mystery in the book. The art was great and I look forward to more in the series.

Was this review helpful?

This was a very fun book to read. Violet and Wally have their first day of the new school year, which begins when they see a mysterious looking painting on the front of the school. No one knows who is behind it, but apparently paintings like it begin showing up all over town. These friends take this case on, and along the way make a new friend. As this tale comes to an end, they come up with the perfect way to bring this case to a close. If you enjoyed the previous Undersea Mystery Club books then you won’t want to miss this one.

Was this review helpful?

I thought that this children’s book was very well illustrated and the storyline well constructed. It struck a good balance between words and pictures for a slightly more advanced read for a child. Particularly, I enjoyed the under water scenes! Would suggest for a child’s library.

Was this review helpful?

An interesting and short read, supplemented with wonderful illustrations and even more impressive characters that will easily attract the attention of your child.
The first thing that made my little daughter smile was the character of Violet, a little mermaid who was a decisive factor when choosing what kind of picture book to read. Although this is part of a series, for us it was the first book we read, and we had no problem because we had not read the previous books.
Children get an extraordinary opportunity to get acquainted with the inhabitants of the seabed, to increase their knowledge of certain types of aquatic creatures, so masterfully combined with fantasy, and more than enough to hold their attention to the very end.

The Puzzling Paintings (Undersea Mystery Club Book 3) by Courtney Carbone contains powerful profound messages and topics for reflection, presented through the use of simple and adequate language structures, which children can easily understand. The author in a very simple, but at the same time impressive way with the topic of the graffiti leads the children to think about social responsibility, about acceptable versus unacceptable behavior. Furthermore, what impresses me personally as a parent is the subtle message that, regardless of age, every child can take the initiative and play a role in solving the problems that affect them as well.

The additions at the end are an absolute benefit for all readers, who will opt for this wonderful picture book, which will help them to get to know the world around them better.

I don't know if you realized by now that I really liked this picture book, and I think it will be a great choice for parents with children who want to enjoy and learn at the same time.

Was this review helpful?

The illustrations in this book are fabulous and very colorful! I loved the mystery aspect in here and I think it's perfect engagement for children and let them practice to think critically. I also loved how this book celebrates artists and their works/art.

Was this review helpful?

My daughter and I really loved this book. It was a fun book about mermaids and other creatures who live under the sea. Violet, Wally and the other characters were so cute and my daughter loved the story about Violet and Wally going to school and going on a detective hunt to find out who was responsible for doing graffiti on the local buildings. The story, characters and illustrations were fantastic. I highly recommend this book; it was really good!

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

This is a wonderful mystery adventure for young readers (grades 1-3). Students will also love the graphics that accompany the story. Epic is doing a great job of engaging young readers.

Was this review helpful?

While this is a reasonable book for the reluctant reader who wants something this slim and slender to get a sense of accomplishment, and while it provides a bright and colourful world for its characters to live in, it is a little bit too basic. The mermaid, the narwhal and the starfish in the mermaid's hair who gets a solitary mention in the text, if I recall, are astonished to see graffiti all over their school – and it's only the first morning of the new school year. The culprit couldn't possibly be the inky, artistic outsider Ollie the octopus, could it? Well, yes.

Now I cannot remember the first book in this series being so patently solvable, but this is the second one in a row where the story has been too childishly simplistic. This is a step back up in quality, for the first sequel really struggled to get anywhere as regards narrative. This is a very, very juvenile thriller, though – with the grand total of two possible suspects, and the right one obvious even before we've met the second. There probably is a market for such easy-to-solve crime books, but all told this still seemed a little too facile.

Was this review helpful?