… to an engaging book. Take two curious, likable characters–-one boy and one girl—and throw them into an exciting, sometimes harrowing mystery, then shake in lots of personality and personalities, intriguing settings, and questionable villains. Shake and serve to 2nd-5th graders.
It’s what Eric Luper has done in The Mysterious Moonstone, 
the first book in his new Key Hunters series.
When Cleo and Evan notice that their horrible new librarian (how they long for Mrs. Hilliard who left under mysterious circumstances) has essentially disappeared from the back of the library, they take it upon themselves to investigate. Their curiosity sucks them to a mansion in another place and time where they must do some real sleuthing to find the crook and find a key or they risk getting stuck in that world forever.
What I like best about this book is the way Eric takes an unflinching approach to danger and mystery, making it suspenseful and scary, in a parent-approved way, to young readers who will revel in the excitement.
I’ve learned that future books in the series will take our heroes to different locales with different missions, which is great because Cleo and Evan are such likable characters, readers will want to follow them wherever their adventures lead next.
Full disclosure: I do know Eric. We met as author-friends online, and I had the wonderful opportunity to hang out with him this past winter at a writer’s workshop and retreat. He did not pay or otherwise coerce me to write this review; I offered to do so after reading a book I sorta wished I’d written myself.
This book review is part of Barry Summy’s Outstandingly Awesome Book Review Club (not it’s real name). Check out more here.
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@Barrie Summy
This does sound like fun.
Kids are going to love it!
Jody, this sounds like it’s up BOTH our alleys! Great combination of fantasy and puzzles, hey? Thanks for letting me know about it.
If Eric should ever join us, he’ll need to wear multiple hats 🙂
I like hats…
How fun. I would have loved that book in elementary school.
I would have raced through them, too.
Jody, I changed the link on my blog to this post back to linking to your blog in general. It kept self-populating with my info under the comment section (name, email, website) even when I was signed out of google.
It’s clear on my end. You are safe 🙂
Hi Jody! Clicking on the subject line pulled up the comment box. I changed the link on my blog to your subject line. (which I generally do for everyone once posts are up anyway). So…yay for Eric Luper! You know how much I love middle grade mysteries. As in like chocolate cake! And I do like the renaming of our book club! Thanks for reviewing!
Thanks for being my guinea pig, Barrie! We’re still working out a few kinks on this new website, but it should be smooth sailing from here on out. And yeah. I like cookies, too.
Oh, sounds like fun! Just the kind of book I would have loved at that age. Great review! Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure, Rob. Truly. It’s so great to be able to recommend wonderful books!