First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is delighted to introduce a new feature for our website, book reviews written by students. These students offer their unique perspective on the book in their review and provide a valuable resource to parents looking for new mystery adventures for their kids to read.
The Garden of Fear by Paul Shipton
The Bug Muldoon Series
Penguin Young Adult (Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-14-230242-2 (0142302422)
ISBN-13: 978-0-14-230242-2 (9780142302422)
Publication Date: January 2003
List Price: $5.99
Review written by Kevin, Age 11, Grade 6. Date of review: October 2008.
Review: If you are looking for a good book to brighten up your day, or perhaps just need some entertainment, then Bug Muldoon and the Garden of Fear is the book for you. Written by Paul Shipton, expert sleuth of the garden Bug Muldoon goes on various adventures throughout the 1st Bug Muldoon book of an excellent series.
Bug Muldoon first encounters a few earwigs looking for Bug to solve a tricky mystery. As Bug is looking around for clues, he meets up with an old buddy Jake the housefly. Jake is an excellent source of helpful information, but has a sugar addiction. Bug hears that the missing earwig was found by the compost heap where the spider lives. The spider will eat anything in its path. Bug soon solves the mystery, and the news is dreadful. Little does Bug know this is only a minor mystery. Soon after the encounter with the 3 earwigs, Bug overhears a couple of roaches talking about the ant colony, so Bug goes to check it out. Bug hears a lot of fishy information from the ant queen and workers. Later in the story Bug finds out that the case the head worker ant wanted Bug to solve was a decoy so Bug wouldn’t see the head ant’s evil plan coming. Eventually Bug gets a couple of good friends together to gather up and fight the evil ant’s army. Fortunately Bug makes it out alive, but there were many casualties. At the end of the story Bug makes a very brave decision and turns down a greatly generous offer.
I really liked the way the author took the things people use and do, and put them in a way an insect would use and do certain things. This is a good action book but also has a very good, solid story behind it. The way the author worded everything and the different mysteries and cases that need to be solved, but behind those mysteries was another mystery. This book kept me thinking all the time, trying to solve all the mysteries and figuring everything out just kept me entertained. This book would be a good read to age group 9 years old to adult .For the younger kids, all the insects and different characters are just a splash of emotion. This book would also help the littler kids understand how to solve a mystery better because of all the bugs and beetles. For adults this is a good read because there are solid stories behind all of these characters and cases. There are also some “mature-ish” jokes that kids wouldn’t get, but would skip right over. There is also some violence toward the end, but not too much. Overall I would recommend it to the age group listed above, and perhaps even others.
Some awards Bug Muldoon has won:
• Edgar Allan Poe Award
• CWA Dagger Award
• Editors Choice Award.
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First Clue Mysteries is pleased to provide information on nearly 100 mystery series for children and young adults. Each series is conveniently listed under three different age categories (New Sleuth, ages 4 to 7; Future Sleuth, aged 7 to 10; and Sleuth in Training, ages 10 and older). If you have a favorite mystery series you'd like to see added to our site, please contact us.
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