Usborne Publishing Ltd ISBN 9781474959537 £5.99
Another lively and fast paced book from Serena Patel featuring schoolgirl detective Anisha and her loyal friends. This time, it’s the school science fair but the team’s experiment of a foaming volcano goes awry leading to the school being shut down. Anisha suspects foul play and an investigation is duly launched. Patel has created a jolly school environment with a protagonist that would match any of the classic school girls found in literature. In addition, almost every page is enhanced by quirky illustrations from Emma McCann and readers will no doubt enjoy the asterisks leading them to footnotes on various pages – mostly explaining the meaning of Indian words or foods which is handy because there is a lot of food in this book. Guaranteed to have any reader heading to the kitchen for a snack, the book closes with a recipe for Granny Jas’s Paratha Recipe, a fact file on rats, some suggested science experiments and a meet the author and illustrator section, which are great additions to a fantastic book.
Hilary Payne
