By Caren Cantrell, Illustrated by Bianca Clark
102nd Place, LLC, 2022
Picture Book, 34 Pages, Ages 5-8 Years
Cosette and her mother adopt a dog from a local shelter and name it Oreo. Now Cosette has a new playmate and the dog she always dreamed of, but suddenly things begin to happen around the house, messy things, strange things, ruining an entire cake things! Who’s behind all the mess?
Cosette will need to use all her detective skills to solve this mystery!
Cosette is convinced that Oreo is not responsible and has reasonable clues to uphold her hunch. But how does she prove it? She begins to take steps to catch the culprit, and the evidence makes her more convinced that Oreo is innocent despite her mother making accusations that he’s the culprit! So she takes a last step and uses her old baby monitor to secretly record who is responsible for all this mischief.
Well, the outcome will surprise most, and her mother helps her to coordinate the ultimate solution.
Problem solving and critical thinking skills are a learned behavior, and important for a child’s social development whether it’s solving a mystery or resolving a conflict between people. This book covers both of those issues well. Cosette and her mother are at odds about a presumably mischievous dog, but Cosette is able to think clearly, and takes the steps necessary to get to the bottom of the mystery.
The book is a nice size for small hands, and the illustrations are bright and bold, with fun detail to find on each page. My only criticism, and the reason it lost half a star in the rating, is that the mother seems impatient when she should have been listening to the clues Cosette was finding and offering to help solve the case. However I wouldn’t let that keep anyone from purchasing this book. It’s a great message about analytical thinking without becoming so emotional you can’t use your reasoning skills. Those books are difficult to find.
The back matter has some great ‘detective’ activities that convinced this reviewer go buy a lemon and write a secret message to see what happens! You’ll need to read the book to see how this is relevant!
It would be fun to see this duo solve other mysteries in the future!
Cosette and Oreo: The Case of the Night Raiders gets 4.5 stars from this reviewer.
Robyn Anderson Gaiotti says
Sounds like a book I need to buy and read to my grand kids.