The Case of the Missing Tadpole is a lighthearted caper mystery for youngsters with some good underlying messages, written by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver. Released 15th Oct 2024 by Harry Abrams Books, it's 80 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

This is a cute mystery, and the second to feature the titular character, Willow, the Detective Duck, and a large ensemble cast of secondary characters. Readers are dropped into the middle of the action from the first page, little tadpole, Tad, has gone missing and everyone joins in to find out how he could've disappeared.

All the animals get in on the hunt, and they soon find even more mysteries to solve. The action driven plot is a bit choppy in places, and there are a large number of characters, but overall it's a fun light story with some good takeaways.

The incidental art by Dan Santat is adorable and supports and enhances the action. It's "cartoon"ish, but also full of details which invite readers to spend some time and take a closer look.

Four stars, it would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, home reading, or possibly gifting.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Winkler and Oliver have created a pond full of funny, adorable characters. Willow the duck is a cute little protagonist. I like how she taps her foot while thinking and I love her catch phrase. "Poof, problem solved." The characters all well described with individual traits that make them memorable and Dan Santant has done a fantastic job of bringing these characters to life in his cute illustrations.

I was expecting a cute little mystery with a little duck as the detective. But the authors have included so much more. When Willow and her friends go in search of the missing tadpole they discover a pipe with brown water and an overgrowth of blue-green plants. They also watch as a young boy who is looking down at the mess accidently loses his glasses into the pond. Willow needs to find Taddy the tadpole, convince the fish who found the magic eyes to give them up and return them to the boy, and somehow show the humans the pipe with brown water. Combining the story of the missing tadpole search with the lesson about doing what is right and returning the glasses works very well. Those two elements along with the science about tadpoles turning into frogs made a cute story. There is also a lot of humor in the characters. Unfortunately, the book is a bit heavy handed with the environmental message about agricultural runoff and blue-green algae. It packs a lot of science about into a book for little ones. Winkler is trying to send a worthwhile message about taking care of the earth, but there are just too many plots in the one book.

A delightful second book in this fun series; imagine a pondful of interesting characters and a duck who solves the mysteries that crop up in their daily lives.

This one focuses on the disappearance of Tad the Tadpole, the arrival of some glasses [Willow, AKA Detective Duck, is so brave in this part of the book and I think kids will really enjoy seeing her do the right thing], and a potential environmental nightmare and how Detective Willow Duck goes about solving the mysteries AND helping to keep the pond they live in safe for all.

Filled with great illustrations and a VERY timely message, this is a fantastic book for all and kids who are interested in the mysterious side of life will really love these [yes, they are easy to solve, but one has to start somewhere right? And the characters are totally delightful so that really helps] and will dive in again and again. I highly recommend this series and am looking forward to book 3!!

Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Winkler, Lin Oliver, Dan Santat - Illustrator and ABRAMS/Amulet Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you author and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

I loved this follow up to Detective Duck #1. My personal kids are hooked, and I cannot wait to add it to my classroom library!

Detective duck goes on her second mystery looking for a lost tadpole. She explores for the missing tadpol with her salamander friend among others. This book is a book about environmental pollution. As another reviewer wrote the soultion to the problem is nicely solved.

It was not a story I feel my classroom would have been engaged in. A quaint little story for others perhaps.

A tadpole (creatively named Tad) has gone missing, and the pond is in an uproar. Animals are searching, but they don't all know what they're searching for. They find a pair of glasses and some spooky algae, but Detective Duck is just the critter to figure out how to tie all these problems up and solve the case.

This is a cute and funny story that thoughtfully mentions the impact humans can have on nature. Unfortunately, it jumps around a lot. For such a small book, it has way too many characters and no consistent sense of POV. It's a chaotic read, and it would have done better if it had tried to do just one or two things with one or two characters rather than trying to build an entire world in 30 pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I received an electronic ARC from ABRAMS | Amulet Books through NetGalley.
Detective Duck returns and takes on a new case. Tad the Tadpole is missing and Willow enlists help to find him. As her team explores the pond, they discover some strange colored plants and brown water draining from a pipe. They also discover how hard it is to breathe near these things. When a human boy loses his glasses in the water, this starts a chain of events that leads to humans working to clean up the pond and stop the drainage. The friends are glad to be together and know their pond will be saved too. The short chapter format works to share the story. The illustrations bring the characters to life and offer readers a view of pond life.

The illustrations are adorable. I enjoyed that the story was about a pond and kids can learn about pollution. For young readers, I thought the text was a little long. Toward the end of the book, I wish there were more details about the farm, action steps, and how the pond the water, and the animals would be affected, without it getting too wordy. I enjoyed the story had two storylines to follow to keep the reader interested in the missing tadpole.

The second detective duck mystery finds Willow looking for her friend's missing son. This was very cute! I loved the way it introduced kids to nature with frogs' growth from tadpoles, and environmental contamination.

Willow the duck is on the case! Willow works to gather all the facts, not just make up stories, to solve the case of the Franny's missing tadpole. It includes information about lifecycles and protecting our waters, with just enough mystery that young readers could solve the case on their own. At moments, I wished it leaned into the jokes -- more Tad the teen -- and mystery instead of just on the surface level.

Detective Duck is at it again. Tad the tadpole is missing, so Detective Duck is on the case. She with the help of many of the Pond Squad go looking for him. While searching they encounter some weird blue/green plant that makes it hard to breathe and some humans. In the end Detective Duck finds Tad, the missing human’s glasses and helps to rid the pond of the harmful plant.

I really enjoyed the first book and this one was also cute. It had a good message. I think readers will enjoy this one too.

I was actually really looking forward to my foray into the world of <i>Detective Duck</i>. I’m not usually the sort of person who picks up a book without having read the first book in the series. In this particular instance, though, I don’t think reading the first book could have saved <i>The Case of the Missing Tadpole.</i>

While I’m not entirely sure why, I can’t help feeling that this book would have been infinitely better as a graphic novel. I was so disappointed with the writing and the characters that perhaps replacing the vast majority of it with pictures would truly be a turning point for the whole series.

There’s some good to be said about the messaging attempt Winkler made, focusing in on real and meaningful solutions to problematic pollution. It’s just such a shame that the overall packaging for this message wasn’t that great.

I highly doubt the writing will keep a young reader engaged. There are so many characters thrown at the reader so quickly and the jump from one moment to another is often so scattered. So, this is probably not a book I’d recommend to many people. It’s not the worst, but it’s certainly not good either.