Review: Anisha, Accidental Detective Fright Night, by Serena Patel, Illustrated by Emma McCann

Summary

There’s a spooky mystery at school, in the sixth hilarious case in the award-winning Anisha, Accidental Detective series!

It’s Halloween and everyone is excited about the school disco. It’s a bit much for me – all that dressing-up and dancing. I’d rather cosy up with a good book, but Milo, Mindy and Manny are all super excited.

Or at least, they were excited, until all these strange things started happening – messages appearing on the whiteboard, lights flickering on and off, books flying off the library shelves… Some of the other kids have been whispering that the school is haunted, but Mr Graft says that if the spooky mischief doesn’t stop, then the disco will be cancelled.

Looks like a mission for me, Anisha, accidental ghost detective!

My Review

Thanks to Bee from Kaleidescope Tours for organising this blog tour, and to the publisher for my copy of this book.

I don’t remember have Halloween discos at primary school, but I remember my sister’s kids having Halloween discos, only because they couldn’t understand why a couple of their friends didn’t do Halloween. They were too young to explain about their friend’s mum being a religious nut while the grandparents were both vicars, who disapproved of the fun. Which is odd, because although Halloween coincides with Samhain, an Irish pre-Christian festival of winter, Halloween itself comes from ‘All Hallows Eve’, which precedes All Souls and All Saints Days in the Catholic liturgical calendar and is thus a Christian festival remembering the dead. But people are weird.

I’ve never read any of this series before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was happily surprised to find this book full of fun characters and enjoyable to read as the children try to find out who is trying to sabotage their school disco. There’s also complex family drama happening in the background as well. The book teaches a few lessons about family, new friends, not making assumptions about other people and that sometimes things we think are going to be bad could actually turn out to be fun.

The writing is good, and I found the voice of Anisha realistic, for a 10-year-old girl. Milo and Manny are definitely 10-year-old boys, from what I remember of ten-year-old boys – excitable, highly imaginative and in need of some common sense. Most ten-year-olds are excitable, highly imaginative and in need of common sense. I thought that when I was one, and nothing has changed since. To be fair, that usually covers most humans.

The plot is entertaining and engaging, with a mystery that follows the traditions of crime fiction, but obviously suitable for children. The most danger anyone is in involves slime and food fights.

The illustrations add to the story and are quite funny. The illustrator is very talented.

Definitely recommend this book.

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Author Information

Serena Patel is the author of the Anisha, Accidental Detective series which won the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award for Fiction. She lives in the West Midlands with her family and believes all children deserve to feel seen in the stories they read and that books are an important tool for empathy. When she’s not writing Serena enjoys watching movies, reading and eating cake. Chocolate cake preferred.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/SerenaKPatel

Instagram: http://instagram.com/_serena_patel_

Illustrator Information

Emma McCann is a freelance illustrator, sporadic painter/print maker, occasional cake baker, and regular mess maker. She lives in Cornwall and works from an attic studio where her ideas are scribbled, Wacom’d, and Photoshopped into existence. In her spare time, Emma undertakes scientific research into Cornwall’s best cream tea and takes it very, very seriously.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cooliobeanz

Instagram: http://instagram.com/emmamccann